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PATRICK HENRY. 







THE LIFE OF 

PATRICK HENRY 

By WILLIAM WIRT 



EDITED WITH NOTES 

By henry KETCHAM 




WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



- 



^ A^JL. BURT COMPANY, jfc ^ jfc jt 
j» ^ jt PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK 



/.- ^' 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGkESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUL 18 1903 

Copyiight Entry 
j CLASS CL XXc No. 

^^ ^^ 3) a- ; 

L COPY u . 

ItWI \ T 11 " T ■Willi I 




Copyright, 1903, 
By A. L. BUET COMPANY. 





CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAQ* 

I. Early Life. 1736-1763 13 

II. Enters the House of Burgesses. 1763-1765 44 

III. Events Leading to the Continental Congress. 1766- 

1774 75 

IV. The Virginia Convention and Henry's Great Speech. 

1775 110 

V. The First Uprising in Virginia. 1775 130 

VI. Open Breach Between Governor Dunmore and the 

Colony of Virginia. Mr. Henry Withdraws from 

Military Life. Is Elected Governor. 1775-1776.. 149 

VII. Governor of Virginia. Member of Legislature. 

Resumes Practice of Law. 1776-1788 198 

VIII. Member of the Virginia Assembly. Ratification of 

the Constitution. 1788-1791 257 

IX. Case of the British Debts. General Law Practice. 

1791-1794 813 

X. Closing Years. 1794-1799 883 

XI. Personal Traits. Conclusion 406 

1 



PREFACE. 



The reader has a right to know what degree of 
credit is due to the followinsi; narrative ; and it is the 



^to ^^"XXt^t^X, V. , 



object of this preface to give him that satisfaction. 

It was in the summer of 1805, that the design of 
writing this biography was first conceived. It was 
produced by an incident of feeling, which, however it 
affected the author at the time, might now be thought 
light and trivial by the reader ; and he shall not, 
therefore, be detained by the recital of it. The 
author knew nothing of Mr. Henry, personally. He 
had never seen him ; and was of course compelled to 
rely wholly on the information of others. As soon, 
therefore, as the design was formed of writing his 
life, aware of the necessity of losing no time in col- 
lecting, from the few remaining contemporaries of 
Mr, Henry, that personal knowledge of the subject 
which might ere long be expected to die with them, 
the author despatched letters to every quarter of the 
state in which it occurred to him as probable that 
interesting matter might be found ; and he was grati- 
fied by the prompt attention which was paid to his 
inquiries. 

There were, at that time, living in the county of 
Hanover, three gentlemen of the highest standing, 

3 



4: PRQii^CEo 

who had been the companions of Mr. Henry's child- 
hood and youth; these were, Col. Charles Dabney, 
Capt. George Dabney, and Col. William O. Winston ; 
the two first of whom are still living. Not having 
the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with these 
gentlemen, the author interested the late Mr. ISTa- 
thanial Pope in his object, and, by his instrumen- 
tality, procured all the useful information which was 
in their possession. Mr. Pope is well known to have 
been a gentleman of uncommonly vigorous and dis- 
criminating mind ; a keen observer of truth, and a 
man of the purest sense of honor. The author cannot 
recall the memory of this most amiable and excellent 
man, to whom (if there be any merit in this work) 
the friends of Mr. Henry and the state of Virginia 
owe so many obligations, without paying to that 
revered memory the tribute of his respect and affec- 
tion. Mr. Pope was one of those ardent young Vir- 
ginians, who embarked before they had attained their 
maturity, in the cause of the American revolution, he 
joined a cavalry company and distinguished himself 
by an impetuous gallantry, which drew upon him the 
eyes and the applause of his commander. In peace, 
he was as mild as he had been brave in war; his 
bosom was replete with the kindest affections ; he 
was, in truth, one of the best of companions, and one 
of the warmest of friends. The fact that he was the 
acknowledged head of the several bars at which he 
practised in the country, may assure the reader of 
his capacity for the commission which he so cheer- 
fully undertook, in regard to Mr. Henry, and the un- 
blemished integrity of his life may assure him also 
of the fidelity with which that commission was exe- 



PREFACE. 5 

cuted. So many important anecdotes in the following 
work depend on the credit of this gentleman as a 
witness, that the slight sketch which has been given of 
his character, will not, it is hoped, be thought foreign 
to the purpose of this preface. Mr. Pope did not con- 
fine his inquiries to the county of Hanover: he w^as 
indefatigable in collecting information from every 
quarter ; which he never accepted, however, but from 
the most trustworthy sources ; and his authority for 
every incident was given with the most scrupulous 
accuracy. The author had hoped to have, had it in 
his power to gratify this gentleman, by submitting to 
his view the joint result of their labors, and obtaining 
the benefit of his last corrections ; but he was disap- 
pointed by his untimely and melancholy death. He 
fell a, victim to the savage practice of dueling, which, 
under the false name of honor, continued to prevail 
too long ; and his death is believed to have been highly 
instrumental in hastening that system of legislation 
in restraint of this practice, which now exists in Vir- 
ginia. 

Besides the contributions furnished by Mr. Pope, 
the wTiter derived material aid from various other 
quarters. The widow of Mr. Henry was still living, 
and had intermarried with Judge Winston ; from this 
gentleman, who was also related to Mr. Henry by 
blood, and had been intimately acquainted with him 
through the far greater part of his life, the author 
received a succinct, but extremely accurate and com- 
prehensive memoir. 

Col. Meredith, of Amherst, was a few years older 
than Mr. Henry, had been raised in the same neigh- 
borhood, and had finally married one of his sisters. 



6 PREFACE. 

Having known Mr. Henry from his birth to his 
death, he had it in his power to supply very copious 
details, which were taken down from his narration 
by the present Judge Cabell, and forwarded to the 
author. 

One of the most intimate and confidential friends 
of Mr. Henry was the late Judge Tyler. The judge 
had a kind of Roman frankness, and even bluntness, 
in his manners, together with a decision of character 
and a benevolence of spirit, which had attached Mr. 
Henry to him, from his first appearance on the public 
stage. They were, for a long time, members of the 
House of Delegates together, and their friendship 
continued until it was severed by death. From 
Judge Tyler the author received a very minute and 
interesting communication of incidents, the whole of 
which had either passed in his OAvn presence, or had 
been related to him by Mr. Henry himself. 

The writer is indebted to Judge Tyler for two or 
three of his best incidents ; one of them will probably 
be pronounced the most interesting passage of the 
work. He owes to the same gentleman, too, the full- 
est and liveliest description of the person of Mr. 
Henry, which has been furnished from any quarter ; 
and he stands further indebted to him for a rare and 
(to the purpose of this work) a very important book 
— the Journals of the House of Burgesses for the 
years 1763-4-5-6 and 7. 

From Judge Roane the author has received one 
of the fairest and most satisfactory communications 
that has been made to him ; and the vigor and ele- 
gance with which that gentleman writes, has fre- 



PREFACE. 7 

quently enabled the author to relieve the dulness of 
his own narrative, by extracts from his statements. 

Mr. Jefferson, too, has exercised his well-known 
kindness and candor on this occasion; having not 
only favored the author with a very full communica- 
tion in the first instance; but assisted him, subse- 
quently and repeatedly, with his able counsel, in rec- 
onciling apparent contradictions, and clearing away 
difficulties of fact. 

Besides these statements, drawn from the memory 
of his correspondents, the writer was favored, by the 
late Governor Page, with the reading of a pretty ex- 
tended sketch, which the latter had himself prepared, 
of the life of Mr. Henry ; and he has, furthermore, 
availed himself of the kind permission of Mr. Pey- 
ton Eandolph, to examine an extremely valuable 
manuscript history of Virginia, written by his father, 
the late Mr. Edmund Randolph ; which embraces the 
whole period of Mr. Henry's public life. 

In addition to these stores of information, the 
author has had the good fortune to procure complete 
files of the public newspapers, reaching from the 
vear 1765 down to the close of the American revolu- 
tion ; by these he has been enabled to correct, in some 
important instances, the memory of his correspon- 
dents, in relation not only to dates, but to facts them- 
selves. 

He has been fortunate, too, in having procured 
several original letters, which shed much light on im- 
portant and hitherto disputed facts, in the life of Mr. 
Henry. 

The records of the General Court, and the archives 
of the state, having been convenient to the author, 



8 PRl^ACE. 

and always open to him, he has endeavored assid- 
uously and carefully to avail himself of that certain 
and permanent evidence which they afford; and has 
been enabled, by this means, as the reader will dis- 
cover, to correct some strange mistakes in reference to 
historical facts. 

The author's correspondents will find, that he has 
departed, in some instances, from their respective 
statements ; and he owes them an explanation for 
having done so: the explanation is this — their state- 
ments were, in several instances, diametrically op- 
posed to each other ; and were sometimes all con- 
tradicted by the public prints, or the records of the 
state. It ought not to be matter of surprise, that 
these contradictions should exist, even among those 
most respectable gentlemen, relying, as they did, 
solely upon memory ; and speaking of events so very 
remote, without a previous opportunity of communi- 
cating with one another. It will be seen by them, 
that the author has been obliged, in several instances, 
to contradict even the several histories of the times, 
concerning which he writes ; but this he has never 
done without the most decisive proofs, which he has 
always cited ; nor has he ever departed from the nar- 
ratives of his several correspondents, except under the 
direction of preponderating evidence. As among 
those contradictory statements, all could not be true, 
he has sought the correction by public documents, 
when such correction was attainable ; and when it was 
not, he has selected, among his narrators, those whose 
opportunities to laiow the fact in question seemed to 
be the best. This he has done, without the slightest 
intention to throw a shadow of suspicion on the credit 



PREFACE. 9 

of any gentleman who has been so obliging as to an- 
swer his inquiries ; but merely from the necessity 
which he was under, either of making some selection, 
or abandoning the work altogether ; and he knows of 
no better rule of selection, than that which he 
adopted. 

Although it has been so long since the collection of 
these materials was begun, it was not until the sum- 
mer of 1814 that the last communication was re- 
ceived. Even then, when the author sat down to' the 
task of embodying his materials, there were so many 
intricacies to disentangle, and so many inconsisten- 
cies, from time to time, to explain and settle, and 
that, too, through the tedious agency of cross-mails, 
that his progress was continually impeded, and has 
been, to him, most painfully retarded. 

Other causes, too, have contributed to delay the 
publication. The author is a practising lawyer ; and 
the courts which he attends, keep him perpetually and 
exclusively occupied in that attendance through ten 
months of the year ; nor does the summer recess of 
two months afford a remission from professional la- 
bor. In Virginia, the duties of attorney, counsellor, 
conveyancer, and advocate, are all performed by the 
same individual ; hence the summer vacation, instead 
of being a time of leisure, is not only the season of 
preparation for the approaching courts, but is subject, 
moreover, to a perpetual recurrence of what are here 
called office duties, which renders a steady applica- 
tion to any other subject impossible. 

These sketches are now submitted to the public, 
with unaffected diffidence ; not of the facts which they 
detail, for on them the author has the firmest re- 



lO PREFACE. 

liance ; but of the manner in which he has been able 
to accomplish his undertaking. For (to say nothing 
of his inexperience and want of ability for such a 
work) he has been compelled to write (when he was 
suffered to write at all) amid that incessant profes- 
sional annoyance which has been mentioned, and 
which is known by every man who has ever made the 
trial, to forbid the hope of success in any composi- 
tion of this extent. Could the writer have looked 
forward, with any reasonable calculation, to a period 
of greater ease, his respect for the memory of Mr. 
Henry, as Avell as his regard for himself, would have 
induced him to suspend this undertaking until that 
period should arrive. But having no ground for any 
hope of this kind, he has thought it better to hazard 
even this crude sketch, than to suffer the materials, 
wdiich he had accumulated with so much toil, and for 
an object which he thought so laudable, to perish on 
his hands. 

These remarks are not made with the view of de- 
23recating the censures of critics ; but merely to be- 
speak the candor of that larger portion of readers, 
who are willing to be pleased with the best efforts 
that can be reasonably expected from the circum- 
stances of the case. The author, however, is well sat- 
isfied that the most indulgent reader (although benev- 
olently disposed to overlook defects of execution) will 
be certainly disappointed in the matter itself of this 
work ; for, notwithstanding all his exertions, he is en- 
tirely conscious that the materials, which he has been 
able to collect, are scanty and meager, and utterly 
disproportionate to the great fame of Mr. Henry. It 
is probable, that much of what was once known of 



PREFACE. It 

iiiin had perished before the author commenced his 
researches ; and it is also possible that much may still 
be known which he has not been able to discover, be- 
cause it lies in unsuspected sources, or with persons, 
for some reason or other unwilling to communicate 
their information. It is the conviction, that he has 
not been able to inform himself of the whole events 
of Mr. Henry's life, and that his collection can be con- 
sidered only as so many detached sketches. If, in 
this humble and unassuming character, it shall give 
any pleasure or benefit to the numerous admirers of 
Mr. Henry, the author will have attained all that he 
has a right to expect. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 



CHAPTEK I. 

EAELY LIFE, 1736-1763. 

Patrick Henry, the second son of John and 
Sarah Henry, and one of nine children, was born on 
the 29th of May, 1736, at the family seat, called Stud- 
ley, in the county of Hanover and colony of Virginia. 
In his early childhood, his parents removed to another 
seat, in the same county, then called Mount Brilliant, 
now the Retreat ; at which latter place Patrick Henry 
was raised and educated. His parents, though not 
rich, were in easy circumstances ; and, in point of 
personal character, were among the most respected 
inhabitants of the colony. 

Patrick's father. Col. John Henry, was a native of 
Aberdeen in Scotland. He came over to Virginia, in 
quest of fortune, some time prior to the year 1730, 
and the tradition is, that he enjoyed the friendship 
and patronage of Mr. Dinwiddle, afterward the gov- 
ernor of the colony. By this gentleman, it is re- 
ported, that he was introduced to the elder Col. Syme 
of Hanover, in whose family, it is certain, that he 
became domesticated during the life of that gentle- 

13 



14 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

man ; after whose death h^narried his widow, and 
resided on the estate which he had left. It is con- 
sidered as a fair proof of the personal merit of Mr. 
John Henry, that, in those days, when offices were 
bestowed with peculiar caution, ho was the colonel of 
his regiment, the principal surveyor of the county, 
and for many years, the presiding magistrate of the 
county court. He was a man of liberal education, 
possessed a plain, yet solid understanding, and lived 
long a life of irreproachable integrity and exemplary 
piety. His brother Patrick, a clergyman of the 
church of England, followed him to this country some 
years afterward ; and became, by his influence, the 
minister of St. PauFs parish in Hanover, the func- 
tions of which office he sustained throughout his life. 
Both the brothers were zealous members of the es- 
tablished church, and warmly attached to the reign- 
ing family. Col. John Henry was conspicuously so. 
" There are those yet alive," says a correspondent,* 
" who have seen him at the head of his regiment, cele- 
brating the birthday of George the III. with as much 
enthusiasm as his son Patrick afterward displayed in 
resisting the encroachments of that monarch.'^ f 

Mrs. Henry, the widow of Col. Syme, as we have 
seen, and the mother of Patrick Henry, was a native 
of Hanover county, and of the family of Winstons. 
She possessed, in an eminent degree, the mild and be- 

♦Mr. Pope, in 1805. 

t Mr. Burk's account of Mr. Henry is extremely careless 
and full of errors. He begins by making him the son of 
his uncle: — ''Patrick Henry, the son of a Scotch gentle- 
man of the same name" &c. — 3d vol. of the History of 
Virginia, page 300, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 15 

nevolent disposition, the undeviating probity, the cor- 
rect understanding, and easy elocution, by which that 
ancient family has been so long distinguished. Her 
brother William, the father of the present Judge 
Winston, is said to have been highly endowed with 
that peculiar cast of eloquence, for which Mr. Henry 
became, afterward, so justly celebrated. Of this gen- 
tleman, I have an anecdote from Mr. Pope, which I 
shall give in his own words : " I have often heard my 
father, who was intimately acquainted with this Wil- 
liam Winston, say, that he was the greatest orator 
whom he ever heard, Patrick Henry excepted. Dur- 
ing the last French and Indian war, and soon after 
Braddocks' defeat, when the militia were marched 
to the frontiers of Virginia against the enemy, this 
William Winston was the lieutenant of a company. 
The men, who were indifferently clothed, without 
tents, and exposed to the rigor and inclemency of the 
weather, displayed great aversion to the service, and 
were anxious and even clamorous to return to their 
families. At this crisis this William Winston, 
mounting a stump, (the common rostrum of the field- 
orator of Virginia,) addressed them with such keen- 
ness of invective, and declaimed with such force of 
eloquence, on liberty and patriotism, that when he 
concluded, the general cry was, ' Let us march on ; 
lead us against the enemy ! ' and they were now will- 
ing, nay, anxious to encoimter all those difficulties 
and dangers which, but a few moments before had al- 
most produced a mutiny." 

Thus much I have been able to collect of the par- 
entage and family of Mr. Henry; and this, I pre- 
sume, is quite sufficient in relation to a man, who 



16 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

owed no part of his greatness to the lustre of his pedi- 
gree, but was in truth the sole founder of his own for- 
tunes. 

Until ten years of age, Patrick Henry was sent to a 
school in the neighborhood, where he learned to read 
and write, and made some small progress in arithme- 
tic. He was then taken home and, under the direc- 
tion of his father, who had opened a grammar-school 
in his own house, he acquired a superficial knowledge 
of the Latin language, and learned to read the char- 
acter, but never to translate Greek. At the same 
time, he made a considerable proficiency in the math- 
ematics, the only branch of education for which, it 
seems, he showed in his youth the slightest predilec- 
tion. But he was too idle to gain any solid advantage 
from the opportunities which were thrown in his way. 
He was passionately addicted to the sports of the 
field, and could not support the confinement and toil 
which education required. Hence, instead of system 
or any semblance of regularity in his studies, his ef- 
forts were always desultory, and became more and 
more rare, until at length, when the hour of his school 
exercises arrived, he was scarcely ever to be found. 
He was in the forest with his gun, or over the brook 
with his angle-rod ; and, in these frivolous occupa- 
tions, when not controlled by the authority of his 
father, (which was rarely exerted,) he would, it is 
said, spend w^hole days and weeks, with an appetite 
rather whetted than cloyed by enjoyment. 

Patrick's school-fellows, having observed his grow- 
ing passion for these amusements, and having re- 
marked that its progress was not checked eitlier by the 
want of companions or the want of success, f requentlj^ 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 17 

"watched his movements to discover, if they could, the 
secret sources of that delight which they seemed 
to afford him. But they made no discovery which led 
them to any other conclusion than (to use their own 
expression) " that he loved idleness for its own sake." 
They frequently observed him lying along, under the 
shade of some tree that overhung the sequestered 
stream watching, for hours, at the same spot, the mo- 
tionless cork of his fishing-line, without one encourag- 
ing symptom of success, and without any apparent 
source of enjoyment, unless he could find it in the 
ease of his posture, or in the illusions of hope, or, 
which is most probable, in the stillness of the scene 
and the silent workings of his own imagination. This 
love of solitude, in his youth, was often observed. 
Even w^hen hunting with a party, his choice was not 
to join the noisy band that drove the deer; he pre- 
ferred to take his stand, alone, where he might wait 
for the passing game, and indulge himself, mean- 
while, in the luxury of thinking. Isot that he was 
averse to society ; on the contrary, he had, at times, a 
very high zest for it. But even in society, his enjoy- 
ments, while young, were of a peculiar cast; he did 
not mix in the wild mirth of his equals in age; but 
sat, quiet and demure, taking no part in the conver- 
sation, giving no responsive smile to the circulating 
jest, but lost, to all appearance, in silence and ab- 
straction. This abstraction, however, was only ap- 
parent ; for on the dispersion of a company, when in- 
terrogated by his parents as to what had been passing, 
he was able, not only to detail the conversation, but to 
sketch with strict fidelity, the character of every 
speaker. 'None of these early delineations of char- 



18 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

acter are retained by his contemporaries and, indeed, 
they are said to have been more remarkable for their 
justness, than for any peculiar felicity of execution. 

I cannot learn that he gave, in his youth, any evi- 
dence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes 
genius. His companions recollect no instance of pre- 
mature wit, no striking sentiment, no flash of fancy, 
no remarkable beauty or strength of expression; and 
no indication, however slight, either of that impas- 
sioned love of liberty, or of that adventurous daring 
and intrepidity, which marked, so strongly, his future 
character. So far was he, indeed, from exhibiting 
any one prognostic of this greatness, that every omen 
foretold a life, at best, of mediocrity, if not of insig- 
nificance. His person is represented as having been 
coarse, his manners uncommonly awkward, his dress 
slovenly, his conversation very plain, his aversion to 
study invincible, and his faculties almost entirely be- 
numbed by indolence. 'No persuasion could bring 
him either to read or to work. On the contrary, he 
ran wild in the forest, and divided his life between 
the dissipation and uproar of the chase and the lan- 
guor of inaction. 

His propensity to observe and comment upon the 
human character was, so far as I can learn, the only 
hopeful trait which distinguished him from his youth- 
ful companions. This propensity seems to have been 
born with him, and instinctively to have exerted itself 
the moment a new subject was presented to his view. 
Its action was incessant, and it became, at length, al- 
most the only intellectual exercise in which he seemed 
to take delight. To this cause may be traced that con- 
summate knowledge of the human heart which he 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRt. 19 

finally attained, and which enabled him, when he 
came upon the public stage, to touch the springs of 
passion with a master-hand, and to control the resolu- 
tions and decisions of his hearers, with a power, al- 
most more than mortal. 

From what has been already stated, it will be seen 
how little education had to do with the fo™«tj^?" ^J 
this great man's mind. He was, indeed, a mere child of 
Nature, and Nature seems to have been too proud and 
too jealous of her work, to permit it to be touched by 
the hand of art. She gave him Shakespeare s genius 
and bade him, like Shakespeare, to depend on that 
alone. Let not the youthful reader, however, deduce, 
from the example of Mr. Henry, an ff^^'^^''^ 
favor of indolence and the contempt of study Let 
him remember that the powers which surmounted the 
disadvantage of those early habits were such as very 
rarely appear upon this earth. Let him remember 
too, howbng the genius, even of Mr. Henry was 
kept down and hidden from the public view, by the 
sorcery of those pernicious habits; through what 
years of poverty and wretchedness they doomed him 
to struggle; and, let him remember, that at length, 
Ih n tn'th; zenith of his glory, Mr. Henry himself 
had frequent occasions to deplore the consequences of 
his early neglect of literature, and to bewail the 
ghosts of his departed hours." 

His father, unable to sustain, with convenience, the 
expense of so large a family as was "°^ J^^Jlf ^^^f 
on his hands, found it necessary to q^^^'^y JJ J"^ ; 
at a verv early age, to support themselves. With this 
v ew Patrick'wal placed, at the age of fifteen, behind 
Ihe Counter of a country merchant. How he cou- 



20 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ducted himself in this situa^n, I have not been able 
to learn. There could not, however, have been any 
flagrant impropriety in his conduct, since, in the next 
year, his father considered him qualified to carry on 
business on his own account. Under this impression, 
he purchased a small adventure of goods for his two 
sons, William and Patrick, and, according to the lan- 
guage of the country, " set them up in trade." Wil- 
liam's habits of idleness were, if possible, still more 
unfortunate than Patrick's. The chief management 
of their concerns devolved, therefore, on the younger 
brother, and that management seems to have been 
most wretched. 

Left to himself, all the indolence of his character 
returned. The habits of idleness which he had 
formed, and whose spell was already too strong to be 
broken, comported very poorly with that close atten- 
tion, that accuracy and persevering vigor, which are 
essential to the merchant. The drudgery of retailing 
and of book-keeping soon became intolerable ; yet he 
was obliged to preserve appearances by remaining 
continually at his stand. Besides his unpropitious 
habits, there was still another obstacle to his success, 
in the natural kindness of his temper. ^' He could 
not find it in his heart " to disappoint any one who 
came to him for credit ; and he was very easily satis- 
fied by apologies for non-payment. He condemned, 
in himself, this facility of temper, and foresaw the 
embarrassments with which it threatened him; but 
he was unable to overcome it. Even with the best 
prospects, the confinement of such a business would 
have been scarcely supportable ; but with those which 
now threatened him, his store became a prison. To 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 21 

make the matter still worse, the joys of the chase, joys 
now to him forbidden, echoed around him every 
morning, and by their contrast, and the longings 
which they excited, contributed to deepen his disgust 
for his employments. 

From these painful feelings he sought, at first, a 
refuge in music, for which it seems he had a natural 
taste, and he learned to play well on the violin and on 
the flute. From music he passed to books, and, hav- 
ing procured a few light and elegant authors, ac- 
quired for the first time, a relish for reading. 

He found another relief, too, in the frequent oppor- 
tunities now afforded him of pursuing his favorite 
study of the human character. The character of 
every customer underwent this scrutiny; and that, 
not with reference either to the integrity or solvency 
of the individual, in which one would suppose that 
a merchant would feel himself most interested, but in 
relation to the structure of his mind, the general 
cast of his opinions, the motives and principles of 
his actions, and what may be called the philosophy 
of character. In pursuing these investigations, he is 
said to have resorted to arts, apparently so far above 
his years, and which looked so much like an after- 
thought, resulting from his future eminence, that I 
should hesitate to make the statement, were it not 
attested by so many witnesses, some of whom had not 
the capacity for fabricating the fact. Their account 
of it, then, is this : — that whenever a company of his 
customers met in the store, (which frequently hap- 
pened on the last day of the week,) and were them- 
selves sufficiently gay and animated to talk and act 
as nature prompted, without concealment, without 



22 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

reserve, he would take no part in their discussions, 
hut listen with a silence as deep and attentive as if 
under the influence of some potent charm. If, on the 
contrary, they were dull and silent, he would, with- 
out betraying his drift, task himself to set them in 
motion, and excite them to remark, collision, and ex- 
clamation. With this view he would state a hypo- 
thetic case and call for their opinions, one by one, as 
to the conduct which would be proper in it. If they 
differed, he would demand their reasons, and enjoy 
highly the debates in which he would thus involve 
them. By multiplying and varying those imaginary 
cases at pleasure, he ascertained the general course 
of human opinion, and formed, for himself, as it 
were, a graduated scale of the motives and conduct 
which are natural to man. Sometimes he would en- 
tertain them with stories, gathered from his reading, 
or, as was more frequently the case, drawn from his 
own fancy, composed of heterogeneous circumstances, 
calculated to excite, by turns, pity, terror, resentment, 
indignation, contempt ; pausing, in the turns of his 
narrative, to observe the effect ; to watch the different 
modes in which the passions expressed themselves, 
and learn the language of emotion from those chil- 
dren of nature. 

In these exercises, Mr. Henry could have had noth- 
ing in view beyond the present gratification of a nat- 
ural propensity. The advantages of them, however, 
were far more permanent, and gave the brightest 
color to his future life. For those continual efforts to 
render himself intelligible to his plain and unlettered 
hearers, on subjects entirely new to them, taught him 
that clear and simple style which forms the best ve- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 23 

hide of thought to a popular assembly ; while his at- 
tempts to interest and affect them, in order that he 
might hear from them the echo of nature s voice in- 
structed him in those topics of persuasion by which 
men were the most certainly to be moved, and m the 
kind of imagery and structure of language, which 
^ere the best fitted to strike and agitate their hearts 
These constituted his excellencies as an orator; and 
never was there a man, in any age, who possessed, in 
a more eminent degree, the lucid and nervous style of 
argument, the command of the most beautiful and 
striking imagery, or that language of passion which 
burns from soul to soul. 

In the meantime, the business of the store was 
rushing headlong to its catastrophe. One year put an 
end to it. William was then thrown loose upon so- 
ciety to which he was never afterward usefully at- 
tached • * and Patrick was engaged for the two or 
three following years, in winding up this disastrous 
experiment as well as he could. , j v.. 

His misfortunes, however, seem not to have had the 
effect either of teaching him prudence or of chilling 
his affections. For, at the early age of eighteen, we 

. I have seen an original letter from Col Jo^n Henry 
to his son William, in which he remonstrates with him 
:; hfs Z,Zna dissipated course of life. JHere^s reason 
to helieve, however, that at a later period, he may have 
reformed, since a gentleman, to whom the manuscript of 
this work was submitted, notes on this P^^^ase that w^en 
he was at college at Williamsburg, he ^^^o^'f ^^o have 
seen William Henry a member of the assembly, from the 
county^ of Fluvanna; that he was called colonel, and was 
he atlerward understood, pretty well provided as to for- 



24 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

find him married to a Miss Shelton, the daughter of 
an honest farmer in the neighborhood, but in circum- 
stances too poor to contribute effectually to her sup- 
port. By the joint assistance of their parents, how- 
ever, the young couple were settled on a small farm, 
and here, with the assistance of one or two slaves, Mr. 
Henry had to delve the earth, with his own hands, for 
subsistence. Such are the vicissitudes of human life I 
It is curious to contemplate this giant genius, des- 
tined in a few years to guide the councils of a mighty 
nation, but unconscious of the intellectual treasures 
which he possessed, encumbered, at the early age of 
eighteen, "with the cares of a family; obscure, un- 
known, and almost unpitied ; digging, with wearied 
limbs and with an aching heart, a small spot of bar- 
ren earth, for bread, and blessing the hour of night 
which relieved him from toil. Fortunately for him, 
there never was a heart which felt the consolations 
of family affection with greater force, l^o man ever 
possessed the domestic virtues in a higher degree, or 
enjoyed, more exquisitely, those pure delights which 
flow from the endearing relations of conjugal life. 

Mr. Henry's want of agricultural skill, and his 
unconquerable aversion to every species of systematic 
labor, drove him, necessarily, after a trial of two 
years, to abandon this pursuit altogether. His next 
step seems to have been dictated by absolute despair ; 
for, selling off his little possessions, at a sacrifice for 
cash, he entered, a second time, on the inauspicious 
business of merchandise. Perhaps he flattered him- 
self that he would be able to profit by his past exper- 
ience, and conduct this experiment to a more success- 
ful issue. But if he did so, he deceived himself. He 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 25 

soon found that he had not changed his character, by 
changing his pursuits. His early habits still clung to 
him. The same lack of method, the same facility of 
temper, soon became apparent by their ruinous ef- 
fects. He resumed his violin, his flute, his books, his 
curious inspection of human nature; and not unfre- 
quently ventured to shut up his store, and indulge 
himself in the favorite sports of his youth. 

His reading, hov^^ever, began to assume a more 
serious character. He studied geography, in which it 
is said that he became an adept. He read, also, the 
charters and history of the colony. He became fond 
of historical works generally, particularly those' |^ 
Greece and Rome ; and, from the tenacity of his mem- 
ory and the strength of his judgment, soon made him^ 
self a perfect master of their contents. Livy was his 
favorite; and having procured a translation, he be- 
came so much enamored of the work, that he made it 
a standing rule to read it through, once at least, in 
every year, during the early part of his life.* The 
grandeur of the Roman character, so beautifully ex- 
hibited by Livy, filled him with surprise and admira- 
tion ; and he was particularly enraptured with those 
vivid descriptions and eloquent harangues with which 
the work abounds. Fortune could scarcely have 
thrown in his way, a book better fitted to foster his 
republican spirit, and awaken the dormant powers of 
his genius; and it seems not improbable, that the 
lofty strain in which he himself afterward both spoke 
and acted, was, if not originally inspired, at least 
highly praised, by the noble models set before him by 
this favorite author. 

* Judge Nelson had this statement from Mr. Heary him- 
self. 



26 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

This second mercantile experiment was even more 
unfortunate than the first. In a few years it left him 
a bankrupt, and placed him in a situation than \vhich 
it is difficult to conceive one more wretched. Every 
atom of his property was now gone, his friends were 
unable to assist him any further ; he had tried every 
means of support, of which he could suppose himself 
capable, and every one had failed ; ruin was behind 
him ; poverty, debt, want, and famine, before ; and, 
as if his cup of misery were not already full enough, 
here were a suffering wife and children to make it 
overflow. 

But with all his acuteness of feeling, Mr. Henry 
possessed great native firmness of character ; and, let 
me add, great reliance, too, on that unseen arm which 
never deserts the faithful. Thus supported, he was 
able to bear up under the heaviest pressure of mis- 
fortune, and even to be cheerful, under circumstances 
which would sink most other men into despair. 

It was at this period of his fortunes, that Mr. Jef- 
ferson became acquainted with him ; and the reader, 
I am persuaded, will be gratified with that gentle- 
man's own account of it. These are his v/ords: — 
" My acquaintance with Mr. Henry commenced in 
the winter of 1T59-60. On my way to the college, I 
passed the Christmas-holydays at Col. Dandridge's, 
in Hanover, to whom Mr. Henry was a near neighbor. 
During the festivity of the season, I met him in so- 
ciety every day, and we became well acquainted, al- 
though I was much his junior, being then in my 
seventeenth year, and he a married man. His man- 
ners had something of coarseness in them ; his pas- 
sion was music, dancing, and pleasantry. He ex- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 27 

celled in the last, and it attached every one to him. 
You ask some account of his mind and information 
at this period; but you will recollect that we were 
almost continually engaged in the usual revelries of 
the season. The occasion, perhaps, as much as his 
idle disposition, prevented his engaging in any con- 
versation which might give the measure either of his ^ 
mind or information. Opportunity was not, indeed, 
wholly wanting; because Mr. John Campbell was 
there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, the sister of 
Col. Dandridge. He was a man of science, and often 
introduced conversation on scientific subjects. Mr. 
Henry had, a little before, broken up his store, or 
rather it had broken him up; but his misfortunes 
were not to be traced, either in his countenance or 
conduct." 

This cheerfulness of spirit, under a reverse of for- 
tune so severe, is a striking indication of his charac- 
ter. It is not, indeed, easy to conceive that a mind 
like Mr. Henry's could finally sink under any pres- 
sure of adversity. Such a mind must always possess a 
consciousness of power sufficient to himj it above de- 
spondency. Of Mr. Henry it was certainly true, as 
Dr. Johnson has observed of Swift, that ^* he was not 
one of those who, having lost one part of life in idle- 
ness, are tempted to throw away the remainder in 
despair." 

It was now, when all other experiments had failed, 
that, as a last effort, he determined, of his own ac- 
cord, to make a trial of the law. No one expected 
him to succeed. His unfortunate habits were, by no 
means, suited to so laborious a profession: and even 
if it were not too late in life for him to hope to master 



28 LIFE OF PA;fRICK HENRY. 

its learning, the situation of his affairs forbade an 
extensive course of reading. In addition to these ob- 
stacles, the business of the profession, in that quar- 
ter, Avas already in hands from which it was not eas- 
ily to be taken; for (to mention no others) Judge 
Lyons, the late president of the court of appeals, was 
then at the bar of Hanover, and the adjacent coun- 
ties, with an unrivalled reputation for legal learning ; 
and Mr. John Lewis, a man, also, of very respectable 
legal attainments, occupied the whole field of forensic 
eloquence. Mr. Henry himself seems to have hoped 
for nothing more from the profession than a scanty 
subsistence for himself and his family, and his prep- 
aration was suited to these humble expectations; for 
to the study of a profession, which is said to require 
the lucubrations of twenty years, Mr. Henry devoted 
not more than six weeks.* On this preparation, how- 
ever, he obtained a license to practise the law. How 
he passed with two of the examiners, I have no intelli- 
gence, but he himself used to relate his interview with 
the third. This was no other than Mr. John Ran- 
dolph, who was afterward the king^s attorney-general 
for the colony ; a gentleman of the most courtly ele- 
gance of person and manners, a polished wit, and a 
profound lawyer. At first, he was so much shocked 
by Mr. Henry's very ungainly figure and address, 
that he refused to examine him : understanding, how- 
ever, that he had already obtained two signatures, he 

* So say Mr. Jefferson and Judge 'Wmston. Mr. Pope says 
nine months. Col. Meredith and Capt. Dabney, six or eight 
months. Judge Tyler, one month; and he adds: "This I 
had from his own lips. In this time, he read Coke upon 
Littleton, and the Virginia laws." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 29 

entered, with manifest reluctance, on the business. 
A very short time was sufficient to satisfy him of the 
erroneous conclusion which he had drawn from the 
exterior of the candidate. With evident marks of in- 
creasing surprise (produced no doubt by the peculiar 
texture and strength of Mr. Henry's style, and the 
boldness and originality of his combinations,) he 
continued the examination for several hours : interro- 
gating the candidate, not on the principles of muni- 
cipal law, in which he no doubt soon discovered his 
deficiency, but on the laws of nature and of nations, 
on the policy of the feudal system, and on general 
history, which last he found to be his stronghold. 
During the very short portion of the examination 
which was devoted to the common law, Mr. Randolph 
dissented, or affected to dissent, from one of Mr. 
Henry's answers, and called upon him to assign the 
reasons of his opinion. This produced an argimaent ; 
and Mr. Randolph now played off on him the same 
arts which he himself had so often practised on his 
country customers; drawing him out by questions, 
endeavoring to puzzle him by subtleties, assailing 
him with declamation, and watching continually the 
defensive operations of his mind. After a consider- 
able discussion, he said : " You defend your opinions 
well, sir; but now to the law and to the testimony." 
Hereupon, he carried him to his office, and opening 
the authorities, said to him : " Behold the face of 
natural reason ; you have never seen these books, nor 
this principle of the law; yet you are right and I 
am wrong ; and from the lesson which you have given 
me (you must excuse me for saying it) I will never 
trust to appearances again. Mr. Henry, if your in- 



30 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

dustry be only half equal to your genius, I augur tliat 
you will do well, and become an ornament and an 
honor to your profession." It was always Mr. 
Henry's belief that Mr. Randolph had affected this 
difference of opinion, merely to afford him the pleas- 
ure of a triumph, and to make some atonement for 
the wound which his first repulse had inflicted. Be 
this as it may, the interview was followed by the most 
marked and permanent respect on the part of Mr. 
Randolph, and the most sincere good-will and grati- 
tude on that of Mr. Henry.* 

It was at the age of four and twenty that Mr. 
Henry obtained his license. Of the science of law, 
he knew almost nothing : of the practical part he was 

♦This account of Mr. Henry's examination is given by 
Judge Tyler, who states it as having come from Mr. Henry 
himself. It was written before I had received the follow- 
ing statement from Mr. Jefferson; and although there is 
some difference in the circumstances, it has not been 
thought important enough to make an alteration of the 
text necessary. This is Mr. Jefferson's statement: — " In 
the spring of 1760, he came to Williamsburg to obtain 
a license as a lawyer, and he called on me at college. 
He told me he had been reading law only six weeks. Two 
of the examiners, however, Peyton and John Randolph, 
men of great facility of temper, signed his license with 
as much reluctance as their dispositions would permit 
them to show. Mr. Wythe absolutely refused. Robert C. 
Nicholas refused also at first; but, on repeated importun- 
ities and promises of future reading, he signed. These 
facts I had afterward from the gentlemen themselves; the 
two Randolphs acknowledging he v/as very ignorant of 
the law, but that they perceived him to be a young man 
of genius, and did not doubt that he would soon qualify 
himself." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. SI 

so wholly ignorant, that he was not only unable to 
draw a declaration or a plea, but incapable, it is said, 
of the most common or simple business of his profes- 
sion, even of the mode of ordering a suit, giving a 
notice, or making a motion in court. It is not at all 
wonderful, therefore, that such a novice, opposed as 
he was by veterans covered with the whole armor of 
the law, should linger in the background for three 
years.* 

During this time, the wants and distresses of his 
family were extreme. The profits of his practice 
could not have supplied them even with the neces- 
saries of life ; and he seems to have spent the greatest 
part of his time, both of his study of the law and the 
practice of the first two or three years, ^vith his 
father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, who then kept th^ tavern 
at Hanover court-house. Whenever Mr. Shelton was 
from home, Mr. Henry supplied his place in the 
tavern, received the guests, and attended to their en- 
tertainment. All this was very natural in Mr. 
Henry^s situation, and seems to have been purely the 
voluntary movement of his naturally kind and oblig- 
ing disposition. From this, however, a story has 
arisen, that in the early part of his life, he was a 
barkeeper by profession. 

About the time of Mr. Henry's coming to the bar, 
a controversy arose in Virginia, which gradually pro- 
duced a very strong excitement, and called to it, at 
length, the attention of the whole state. This was the 
famous controversy between the clergy on the one 

* " He was not distinguished at the bar for near four 
years." — Judge Winston; yet Mr. Burk intimates that he 
took the lead in his profession at once. — Vol. 2d, 301, 



32 LIFE OF PAJpiCK HENRY. 

hand, and the legislature of the people of the colony 
on the other, touching the stipend claimed by the 
former. As this was the occasion on which Mr. 
Henry's genius first broke forth, it will be of interest 
to give here an account of the nature and grounds of 
the dispute. It will be borne in mind, that the 
church of England was at this period the established 
church of Virginia ; and by an act of assembly, passed 
as far back as the year 1696, each minister of a 
parish had been provided with an annual stipend of 
sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco. This act was 
re-enacted, w^ith amendments, in 1748, and in this 
form had received the royal assent. The price of to- 
bacco had long remained stationary at two pence in 
the pound, or sixteen shillings and eight pence per 
hundred. According to the provisions of the law, the 
clergy had the right to demand, and were in the prac- 
tice of receiving, payment of their stipend in the 
specific tobacco ; unless they chose, for convenience, 
to commute it for money at the market-price. In 
the year 1755, however, the crop of tobacco having 
fallen short, the legislature passed " an act to enable 
the inhabitants of this colony to discharge their to- 
bacco-debts in money for the present year : " by the 
provisions of which, ^' all persons, from whom any 
tobacco was due, were authorized to pay the same 
either in tobacco or in money, after the rate of six- 
teen sJiillings and eight pence per hundred, at the 
option of the dehtorJ^ This act was to continue in 
force for ten months and no longer, and did not con- 
tain the usual clause of suspension, until it should 
receive the royal assent. Whether the scarcity of to- 
bacco was so general and so notorious, as to render 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 33 

this act a measure of obvious liiimanity and necessity, 
or whether the clergy were satisfied by its generality, 
since it embraced sheriffs, clerks, attorneys, and all 
other tobacco-creditors, as well as themselves, or 
whether they acquiesced in it as a temporary expe- 
dient, which they supposed not likely to be repeated, 
it is certain that no objection was made to the law at 
that time. They could not, indeed, have helped ob- 
serving the benefits which the rich planters derived 
from the act ; for they were receiving from fifty to 
sixty shillings per hundred for their tobacco, while 
they paid off their debts, due in that article, at the 
old price of sixteen shillings and eight pence. ISToth- 
ing, however, was then said in defence either of the 
royal prerogative or of the rights of the clergy, but 
the law was permitted to go peaceably through its ten 
months' operation. 

The great tobacco-planters had not forgotten the 
fruits of this act, when, in the year 1758, upon a sur- 
mise that another short crop was likely to occur, the 
provisions of the act of 1755 were re-enacted, and 
the new law, like the former, contained no suspend- 
ing clause. The crop, as had been anticipated, did 
fall short, and the price of tobacco rose immediately 
from sixteen and eight pence to fifty shillings per 
hundred. The cler2:v now took the alarm, and the act 
w^as assailed by an indignant, sarcastic, and vigorous 
pamphlet, entitled, ^^ The Two-Penny Act " from the 
pen of the Rev. John Camm, the rector of York- 
Hampton parish, and the Episcopalian commissary 
for the colony.* He was answered by two pamphlets, 

♦The governor of Virginia represented the king; the 
council, the house of lords, and the Episcopalian commis- 



34 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

written, the one by CoL Richard Bland, and the 
other by Col. Landon Carter, in both which the com- 
missary was very roughly handled. He replied, in a 
still severer pamphlet, under the ludicrous title of 
" The Colonels Dismounted." The Colonels re- 
joined ; and this war of pamphlets, in which, with 
some sound argument, there was a great deal of what 
Dryden has called " the horseplay of raillery," was 
kept up, until the whole colony, which had at first 
looked on for amusement, kindled seriously in the 
contest from motives of interest. Such was the ex- 
citement produced by the discussion, and at length so 
strong the current against the clergy, that the printers 
found it expedient to shut their presses against them 
in this colony and Mr. Camm had at last to resort to 
Maryland for publication. 

These pamphlets are still extant ; and it seems im- 
possible to deny, at this day, that the clergy had much 
the best of the argument. The king in his council 
took up the subject, denounced the act of 1758 as a 
usurpation, and declared it utterly null and void. 
Thus supported, the clergy resolved to bring the 
question to a judicial test ; and suits were accordingly 
brought by them, in the various county courts of the 
colony, to recover their stipends in the specific to- 
bacco. They selected the county of Hanover as the 
place of the first experiment ; and this was made in a 
suit instituted by the Rev. James Maury, against the 
collector of that county and his sureties. The record 
of this suit is now before me. The declaration is 

sary (a member of the council) represented the spiritual 
part of that house; the house of burgesses was, of course, 
the house of commons. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 35 

founded on the act of 1748, wliich gives the tobacco ; 
the defendants pleaded specially the act of 1758, 
which authorizes the commutation into money, at 
sixteen and eight pence ; to this plea the plaintiff de- 
murred ; assigning for causes of demurrer, first, that 
the act of 1758, not having received the royal assent, 
had not the force of a law ; and, secondly, that the 
king, in council, had declared the act null and void. 
The case stood for argument on the demurrer to the 
November term, 1763, and was argued by Mr. Lyons 
for the plaintiff, and Mr. John Lewis for the de- 
fendants; when the court, very much to the credit 
of their candor and firmness, breasted the popular 
current by sustaining the demurrer. 

Thus far, the clergy sailed before the wind, and 
concluded, with good reason, that their triumph was 
complete: for the act of 1758 having been declared 
void by the judgment on the demurrer, that of 1748 
was left in full force, and became, in law, the only 
standard for the finding of the jury. Mr. Lewis was 
so thoroughly convinced of this, that he retired from 
the cause ; informing his clients that it had been, in 
effect, decided against them, and that there remained 
nothing more for him to do. In this desperate situa- 
tion, they applied to Patrick Henry, and he under- 
took to argue it for them before a jury, at the ensuing 
term. Accordingly, on the first day of the following 
December, he attended the court, and, on his arrival, 
found in the courtyard such a concourse as would 
have appalled any other man in his situation. They 
were not the people of the county merely who were 
there, but visitors from all the counties, to a consid- 
erable distance around. The decision upon the de- 



36 LIFE OF PAT^K HENRY. 

miirrer had produced a violent ferment among the 
people, and equal exultation on the part of the clergy ; 
who attended the court in a large body, either to look 
down opposition, or to enjoy the final triumph of this 
hard-fought contest, which they now considered as 
perfectly secure. Among many other clergymen, who 
attended on this occasion, came the Reverend Patrick 
Henry, who was the plaintiff in another cause of the 
same nature, then pending in court. Wlien Mr. 
Henry saw his imcle approach, he walked up to his 
carriage, accompanied by Col. Meredith, and ex- 
pressed his regret at seeing him there. " Why so ? " 
inquired the uncle. " Because, sir,'' said Mr. Henry, 
" you know that I have never yet spoken in public, 
and I fear that I shall be too much overawed by your 
presence, to be able to do my duty to my clients; 
besides, sir, I shall be obliged to say some hard things 
of the clergy, and I am very unwilling to give pain 
to your feelings.'' His uncle reproved him for hav- 
ing engaged in the cause; which Mr. Henry excused 
by saying, that the clergy had not thought him 
worthy of being retained on their side, and he knew 
of no moral principle by which he was bound to re- 
fuse a fee from their adversaries ; besides, he con- 
fessed, that in this controversy, both his heart and 
judgment, as well as his professional duty, were on 
the side of the people ; he then requested that his 
uncle would do him the favor to leave the ground. 
''^ Why, Patrick," said the old gentleman, with a good- 
natured smile, " as to your saying hard things of the 
clergy, I advise you to let that alone: take my word 
for it, you will do more harm to yourself than to 
them, As to my leaving the ground, I fear, my boy, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 87 

that my presence could neither do you harm nor good 
in such a cause. However, since you seem to think 
otherwise, and desire it of me so earnestly, you shall 
be gratified." Whereupon, he entered his carriage 
again, and returned home. 

Soon after the opening of the court, the cause was 
called. It stood on a writ of inquiry of damages, no 
plea having been entered by the defendants since the 
judgment on the demurrer. The array before Mr. 
Henry's eyes was now most fearful. On the bench 
sat more than twenty clergymen, the most learned 
men in the colony, and the most capable, as well as 
the severest, critics before whom it was possible for 
him to have made his debut. The court-house was 
crowded with an overwhelming multitude, and sur- 
rounded with an immense and anxious throng, who, 
not finding room to enter, were endeavoring to listen 
without, in the deepest attention. But there was 
something still more awfully disconcerting than all 
this; for in the chair of the presiding magistrate sat 
no other person than his own father. Mr. Lyons 
opened the cause very briefly : in the way of argument 
he did nothing more than explain to the jury, that the 
decision upon the demurrer had put the act of 1758 
entirely out of the way, and left the law of 1748 as 
the only standard of their damages; he then con- 
cluded with a highly-wrought eulogium on the benev- 
olence of the clergy. 

Now came on the first trial of Patrick Henry's 
strength. No one had ever heard him speak, and 
curiosity was on tiptoe. He rose very awkwardly, 
and faltered much in his exordium. The people 
hung their heads at so unpromising a commencement j 



38 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the clergy were observed to exchange sly looks withi 
each other; and his father is described as having al- 
most sunk with confusion from his seat. But these 
feelings were of short duration, and soon gave place 
to others, of a very different character. For now 
were those wonderful faculties which he possessed, 
for the first time, developed ; and now was first wit- 
nessed that mysterious and almost supernatural trans- 
formation of appearance, which the fire of his own 
eloquence never failed to work in him. For as his 
mind rolled along, and began to glow from its own 
action, all the exnvice of the clown seemed to shed 
themselves spontaneously. His attitude became erect 
and lofty. The spirit of his genius awakened all his 
features. His countenance shone with a nobleness 
and grandeur which it had never before exhibited. 
There was a lightning in his eyes which seemed to 
rive the spectator. His action became graceful, bold, 
and commanding ; and in the tones of his voice, but 
more especially in his emphasis, there was a peculiar 
charm, a magic, of which any one who ever heard him 
will speak as soon as he is named, but of which no one 
can give any adequate description. They can only 
say that it struck upon the ear and upon the heart, 
" in a manner which language cannot tell." Add to 
all those, his wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar 
phraseology in which he clothed its images; for he 
painted to the heart with a force that almost petrified 
it. In the language of those who heard him on this 
occasion, " he made their blood run cold, and their 
hair to rise on end." 

It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard 
this most extraordinary man, to believe the whole ac- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 39 

count of this transaction, which is given hj his sur- 
viving hearers; and from their account, the court- 
house of Hanover county must have exhibited, on 
this occasion, a scene as picturesque, as has been ever 
witnessed in real life. They say that the people, 
whose countenance had fallen as he arose, had heard 
but a very few sentences before they began to look up ; 
then to look at each other with surprise, as if doubt- 
ing the evidence of their own senses ; then, attracted 
by some strong gesture, struck by some majestic at- 
titude, fascinated by the spell of his eye, the charm of 
his emphasis, and the varied and commanding ex- 
pression of his countenance, they could look away no 
more. In less than twenty minutes, they might be 
seen in every part of the house, on every bench, in 
every window, stooping forward from their stands, 
in deathlike silence; their features fixed in amaze- 
ment and awe ; all their senses listening and riveted 
upon the speaker, as if to catch the last strain of some 
heavenly visitant. The mockery of the clergy was 
soon turned into alarm; their triumph into confu- 
sion and despair ; and at one burst of his rapid and 
overwhelming invective, they fled from the bench in 
precipitation and terror. As for the father, such was 
his surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, 
that forgetting where he was, and the character which 
he was filling, tears of ecstacy streamed down his 
cheeks, without the power or inclination to repress 
them. 

The jury seem to have been so completely bewil- 
dered, that they lost sight, not only of the act of 1748, 
but that of 1758 also; for thoughtless even of the ad- 
mitted right of the plaintiff, they had scarcely left 



40 LIFE OF PAJ^ICK HENRY. 

the bar, when thej returned with a verdict of one 
'penny damages. A motion was made for a new trial ; 
but the court, too, had now lost the equipoise of their 
judgment, and overruled the motion by a unanimous 
vote. The verdict and judgment overruling the mo- 
tion, were followed by redoubled acclamations, from 
within and without the house. The people, who had 
with difficulty kept their hands off their champion, 
from the moment of closing his harangue, no sooner 
saw the fate of the cause finally sealed, than they 
seized him at the bar, and in spite of his own exer- 
tions, and the continued cry of ^' order '^ from the 
sheriffs and the court, they bore him out of the court- 
house, and raising him on their shoulders, carried 
him about the yard, in a kind of electioneering tri- 
umph. 

What a scene was this for a father's heart ! so sud- 
den ; so unlooked for ; so delightfully overwhelming ! 
At the time, he was not able to give utterance to any 
sentiment ; but, a few" days after, when speaking of it 
to Mr. Winston, he said, with the most engaging 
modesty, and with a tremor of voice which showed 
how much more he felt than he expressed, ^' Patrick 
spoke in this cause near an hour ! and in a manner 
that surprised me ! and showed himself well informed 
on a subject, of which I did not think he had any 
knowledge ! " 

I have tried much to procure a sketch of this cele- 
brated speech. But those of Mr. Henry's hearers 
who survive, seem to have been bereft of their senses. 
They can only tell you, in general, that they were 
taken captive; and so delighted with their captivity, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 41 

that they followed implicitly, whithersoever he led 
them: that, at his bidding, their tears flowed from 
pity, and their cheeks flushed with indignation : that 
when it was over, they felt as if they had just awaked 
from some ecstatic dream, of which they were unable 
to recall or connect the particulars. It was such a 
speech as they believe had never before fallen from 
the lips of man; and to this day, the old people of 
that county cannot conceive that a higher compli- 
ment can be paid to a speaker, than to say of him, in 
their own homely phrase : — " He is almost equal to 
Patrick, wlien he plead against the parsons.^^ 

The only topic of this speech of which any authen- 
tic account remains, is the order of the king in coun- 
cil, whereby the act of 1758 had been declared void. / 
This subject had in truth been disposed of by the de- 
murrer ; and, in strictness of proceeding, neither Mr. 
Henry nor the jury had any thing to do with it. The 
laxity of the county-court practice, however, indulged 
him in the widest career he chose to take, and he laid 
hold of this point, neither with a feeble nor hesitating 
hand ; but boldly and vigorously pressed it upon the 
jury, and that, too, with very powerful effect. He 
insisted on the connection and reciprocal duties be- 
tween the king and his subjects; maintained that gov- 
ernment was a conditional compact, composed of 
mutual and dependent covenants, of which a violation 
by one party discharged the other; and intrepidly 
contended that the disregard which had been shown, 
in this particular, to the pressing wants of the colony, 
was an instance of royal misrule, which had thus far 
dissolved the political compact, and left the people at 



42 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

liberty to consult tlieir own safety; that they had 
consulted it by the act of 1758, which, therefore, not- 
withstanding the dissent of the king and his counsel, 
ought to be considered as the law of the land, and 
the only legitimate measure of the claims of the 
clergy. 

Immediately on the decision of this cause, he was 
retained in all the cases, within the range of his 
practice, which depended on the same question. But 
no other case was ever brought to trial. They were, 
all throughout the colony, dismissed by the plaintiffs ; 
nor was any appeal ever prosecuted in the case of Mr. 
Maury. The reason assigned for this by Mr. Camm 
is, that the legislature had voted money to support the 
appeal on the part of the defendants, and that the 
clergy were not rich enough to contend against the 
whole wealth and strength of the colony.* 

The clergy took their revenge in an angry pam- 
phlet from the pen of Mr. Camm, in which a very con- 
temptuous account is given both of the advocate and 
the court. Mr. Henry is stigmatized in it as an ob- 
scure attorney: and the epithet was true enough as to 
the time past, but it was now true no longer. His 

* Mr. Camm is right as to the interference of the legis- 
lature. We have not been able, however, to find any reso- 
lution of the legislature to this effect, earlier than the 
7th of April, 1767: whereas Mr. Maury's case was decided 
in Hanover, on the 1st December, 1763. The following is 
extracted from the journal of the day first mentioned: — 

" On a motion made — 

"Resolved, that the committee of correspondence be di- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 43 

sun had risen with a splendor which had never before 
been witnessed in that colony; and never afterward 
did it disgrace this glorious rising. 

rected to write to the agent, to defend the parish collectors 
from all appeals from judgments here given, in suits 
brought by the clergy, for recovering their salaries, paya- 
ble on or before the last day of May, 1759; and that this 
house will engage to defray the expense thereof." 



CHAPTER 11. 

ENTERS THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES, 1763-1765. 

It is almost unnecessary to say that the display 
which Mr. Henry had made in " the parsons' cause/' 
as it was popularly called, placed him at once at the 
head of his profession, in that quarter of the colony 
in which he practised. He became the theme of every 
tongue. He had exhibited a degree of eloquence, 
which the people had never before witnessed ; a 
species of eloquence, too, entirely new at the bar, and 
altogether his own. He had formed it on no living 
model, for there vras none such in the country. He 
had not copied it from books, for they had described 
nothing of the kind ; or if they had, he was a stranger 
to their contents. 'Not had he formed it himself, by 
solitary study and exercise; for he was far too indo- 
lent for any such process. It was so unexampled, so 
unexpected, so instantaneous, and so transcendent in 
its character, that it had, to the people, very much the 
appearance of supernatural inspiration. He was 
styled '• iJie orator cf nature; '^ and was, on that ac- 
count, much more revered by the people than if he 
had been formed by the severest discipline of the 
schools ; for they considered him as bringing his cre- 
dentials directly from heaven, and owing no part of 
his greatness to human institutions. 

U 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 45 

There were other considerations, also, which drew 
him still more closely to the hosom of the people. 
The society of Virginia was at that time pretty 
strongly discriminated. A gentleman who lived in 
those days, and who had the best opportunities of 
judging on the subject, has furnished the following 
interesting picture of it : — 

" To state the differences between the classes of 
society, and the lines of demarcation which separated 
them, would be difficult. The law, you know, admit- 
ted none, except as to the twelve counsellors. Yet in 
a country insulated from the European world, insu- 
lated from its sister colonies, with whom there was 
scarcely any intercourse, little visited by foreigners, 
and having little matter to act upon within itself, 
certain families had risen to splendor by wealth, and 
by the preservation of it from generation to genera- 
tion, under the law of entails ; some had produced a 
series of men of talents ; families in general had re- 
mained stationary on the grounds of their forefath- 
ers, for there was no emigration to the westward in 
those days; the Irish, who had gotten possession of 
the valley between the Blue Ridge and the I^orth 
Mountain, formed a barrier over which none ven- 
tured to leap ; and their manners presented no attrac- 
tion to the lowlanders to settle among them. In such 
a state of things, scarcely admitting any change of 
station, society would settle itself down into several 
strata, separated by no marked lines, but shading off 
imperceptibly from top to bottom, nothing disturbing 
the order of their repose. There were, then, first, 
aristocrats, composed of the great landholders, who 
bad seated themselves below tidewater on the main 



46 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

rivers, and lived in a stpe of luxury and extrava- 
gance insupportable by the other inhabitants, and 
which, indeed, ended in several instances in the ruin 
of their own fortunes. I^ext to these were what 
might be called half-breeds ; the descendants of the 
younger sons and daughters of the aristocrats, who 
inherited the pride of their ancestors, without their 
wealth. Then came the pretenders, men who, from 
vanity or the impulse of growing wealth, or from that 
enterprise which is natural to talents, sought to de- 
tach themselves from the plebeian ranks, to Avhich 
they properly belonged, and imitated, at some dis- 
tance, the manners and habits of the great. Next to 
these, were a solid and independent yeomanry, look- 
ing askance at those above, yet not venturing to jostle 
them. And last and lowest, a feculum of beings, the 
very dregs of society, called overseers, the most ab- 
ject, degraded, unprincipled race ; always cap in hand 
to the dons who employed them, and furnishing ma- 
terials for the exercise of their pride, insolence, and 
spirit of domination.'' 

It was from the body of the yeomanry, whom my 
correspondent represents as '^ looking askance '' at 
those above them, that Mr. Henry proceeded. He 
belonged to the body of the people. His birth, educa- 
tion, fortune, and manners, made him one of them- 
selves. They regarded him, therefore, as their own 
property, and sent to them expressly for the very pur- 
pose of humbling the pride of the mighty, and exalt- 
ing the honor of his own class. 

Mr. Henry had too much sagacity not to see this 
advantage, and too much good sense not to improve it. 
He seems to have formed to himself, very early in 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 47 

life, just views of society, and to have acted upon 
them with the most laudable system and perseverance. 
He regarded government as instituted solely for the 
good of the people, and not for the benefit of those 
who had contrived to make a job of it. He looked 
upon the body of the people, therefore, as the basis of 
society, the fountain of all power, and, directly or in- 
directly, of all offices and honors, which had been in- 
stituted originally for their use. He made it no 
secret, therefore; nay he made it his boast, that on 
every occasion, " he bowed to the majesty of the peo- 
ple.'' With regard to himself, he saw very distinctly 
that all his hopes rested on the people's favor. He 
therefore adhered to them with unshaken fidelity. 
He retained their manners, their customs, all their 
modes of life, with religious caution. He dressed 
as plainly as the plainest of them; ate only the 
homely fare, and drank the simple beverage of the 
country; mixed with them on a footing of the most 
entire and perfect equality, and conversed with them, 
even in their own vicious and depraved pronuncia- 
tion.* 

Middleton, in his life of Cicero, tells us, that the 
first great speech of that orator, his defence of Ros- 
cius of America, was made at the age of twenty- 

* Governor Page relates, that he once heard him express 
the following sentiments, in this vicious pronunciation: — 
'' Naiteral parts is better than all the larnin upon yearth;"' 
but the accuracy of Mr. Page's memory is questioned in 
this particular, by the acquaintances of Mr. Henry, who 
say, that he was too good a grammarian to have uttered 
such a sentence, although they admit the inaccuracy of 
his pronunciation, in some of the words imputed to him. 



48 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

seven; the same age, be aods, at which the learned 
have remarked, that Demosthenes distinguished him- 
self in the assembly of the Athenians : — " as if this 
were the age/' I quote his own words, ^' at which 
these great genios regularly bloomed toward matur- 
ity." It is rather curious, than important, to ob- 
serve, that Mr. Henry furnishes another instance in 
support of this theory; since it was precisely in the 
same year of his life, that his talents first became 
known to himself and to the world. 'Nor let the ad- 
mirer of antiquity revolt at our coupling the name of 
Plenry with those of Cicero and Demosthenes : it can 
be no degradation to the orator either of Greece or 
Rome, that his name stands enrolled on the same page 
with that of a man of whom such a judge of eloquence 
as Mr. Jefferson has said, that '^ he was the greatest 
orator that ever lived.^^ 

But the taste of professional fame which Mr. Henry 
had derived frem the '^ parsons' cause," exquisite as it 
must have been, was not sufficient to inspire him with 
a thirst for the learning of his profession. He had 
an insuperable aversion to the old black-letter of the 
law-hoohs, (which was often a topic of raillery with 
him,) and he was never able to conquer it, except for 
preparation in some particular cause. ISTo love of dis- 
tinction, no necessity, however severe, were strong 
enough to bind him down to a regular course of read- 
ing. He could not brook the confinement. The rea- 
soning of the law was too artificial, and too much 
cramped for him. While unavoidably engaged in it, 
he felt as if manacled. His mind was perpetually 
struggling to break away. His genius delighted in 
liberty and space, in which it might roam at large, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 49 

and feast on every variety of intellectual enjoyment. 
Hence, he was never profound in the learning of the 
law. On a question merely legal, his inferiors, in 
point of talents, frequently embarrassed and foiled 
him ; and it required all the resources of his extraor- 
dinary mind to support the distinction which he had 
now gained. 

The most successful practice in the county courts 
was, in those days, but a slender dependence for a 
family. ISTotwithstanding, therefore, the great addi- 
tion to his business, which we have noticed, Mr. 
Henry seems still to have been pressed by Avant. 
With the hope of improving his situation, he re- 
moved, in the year 1764, to the county of Louisa, and 
resided at a place called the Roundabout. Here I 
have learned nothing remarkable of him, unless it 
may be thought so, that he pursued his favorite 
amusement of hunting with increased ardor. " After 
his removal to Louisa,'^ says my informant, ^^ he has 
been known to hunt deer, frequently for several days 
together, carrying his provision with him, andatnight 
encamping in the woods. After the hunt was over he 
would go from the ground to Louisa court, clad in a 
coarse cloth coat, stained with all the trophies of the 
chase, greasy leather breeches, ornamented in the same 
way, leggings for boots, and a pair of saddlebags on 
his arm. Thus accoutred, he ^ould enter the court- 
house, take up the first of his causes that chanced to 
be called ; and if there was any scope for his peculiar 
talent, throw his adversary into the background, and 
astonish both court and jury, by the powerful effu- 
sions of his natural eloquence. 

There must have been something irresistibly cap- 



50 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tivating in Mr. Henry's mode of speaking, evenontte 
most trivial subjects. The late Judge Lyons has been 
heard to say of himself, while practising with Mr. 
Henry, that ^* he could write a letter, or draw a dec- 
laration or plea at the bar, with as much accuracy, as 
he could in his office, under all circumstances, except 
when Patrich rose to speak; but that whenever he 
rose, although it might be on so trifling a subject as a 
summons and petition for twenty shillings, he was 
obliged to lay down his pen, and could not write an- 
other word, until the speech was finished." Such was 
the charm of his voice and manner, and the interest- 
ing originality of his conceptions ! 

In the fall of 1764, Mr. Henry had an opportunity 
of exhibiting himself on a new theatre. A contest 
occurred in the house of burgesses, in the case of Mr. 
James Littlepage, the returned member for the 
county of Hanover. The rival candidate and peti- 
tioner was Nathaniel West Dandridge. The charge 
against Mr. Littlepage was bribery and corruption. 
The parties were heard by their counsel, before the 
committee of privileges and elections, and Mr. Henry 
was on this occasion employed by Mr. Dandridge. 

Williamsburg, then the seat of government, was 
the focus of fashion and high life. The residence of 
the governor, (the immediate representative of the 
sovereign,) the royal state in which he lived, the 
polite and brilliant circle which he always had about 
him, diffused their influence through the city and the 
circumjacent country, and filled Williamsburg with 
a degree of emulation, taste, and elegance, of which 
we can form no conception by the appearances of the 
present day. During the session of the house of bur- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 61 

gesses, too, these stately modes of life assumed their 
richest forms ; the town was filled with a concourse of 
visitors, as well as citizens, attired in their gayest 
colors; the streets exhibited a continual scene of ani- 
mated and glittering tumult; the houses, of costly 
profusion. 

Such was the scene in which Mr. Henry was now 
called upon, for the first time, to make his appear- 
ance. He made no preparation for it, but went down 
just in the kind of garb which he had been accus- 
tomed to wear all his life, and is said to have worn on 
this occasion particularly, a suit which had suffered 
very considerably in the service. The contrast which 
he exhibited with the general elegance of the place, 
was so striking, as to call upon him the eyes of all the 
curious and the mischievous ; and, as he moved awk- 
wardly about, in his coarse and threadbare dress, with 
a countenance of abstraction and total unconcern as 
to what was passing around him, interesting as it 
seemed to every one else, he was stared at by some as 
a prodigy, and regarded by others as an unfortunate 
being, whose senses were disordered. When he went 
to attend the committee of privileges and elections, 
the matter was still worse. " The proud airs of aris- 
tocracy,'' says Judge Tyler, detailing this incident of 
Mr. Henry's life, added to the dignified forms of 
that truly august body, were enough to have deterred 
any man possessing less firmness and independence of 
spirit than Mr. Henry. He was ushered with great 
state and ceremony into the room of the committee, 
whose chairman was Col. Bland.* Mr. Henry was 

* Mr. Tyler says, " that enlightened and amiable man, 
John Blair; " but in this he is corrected by the journal, 



52 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

dressed in very coarse apparel; no one knew any 
thing of him ; ^ and scarcely was he treated with de- 
cent respect by any one except the chairman, who 
could not do so much violence to his feelings and 
principles, as to depart, on any occasion, from the del- 
icacy of the gentleman. But the general contempt 
was soon changed into as general admiration ; for Mr. 
Henry distinguished himself by a copious and bril- 
liant display on the great subject of the rights of suf- 
frage, superior to any thing that had been heard be- 
fore within those walls. Such a burst of eloquence, 
from a man so very plain and ordinary in his appear- 
ance, struck the committee with amazement ; so that a 
deep and perfect silence took place during the speech, 
and not a sound but from his lips was to be heard in 
the room." So far, Judge Tyler. Judge Winston, 
relating the same incident, says : " Some time after, 
a member of the house, speaking to me of this occur- 
rence, said, he had, for a day or two, observed an ill- 
dressed 3' oung man sauntering in the lobby ; that he 
seemed to be a stranger to every body, and he had not 
the curiosity to inquire his name; but that, attend- 
ing when the case of the contested election came on, 
he was surprised to find this same person counsel for 
one of the parties ; and still more so, when he deliv- 
ered an argument superior to anything he had ever 
heard." The case, according to the report of the com- 

which shows that Mr. Bland was the chairman of the com- 
mittee of privileges and elections for that year. 

* That is, I presume, of his person; for after the very 
splendid exhibition which he made in the parsons' cause, 
his name could not have been wholly unknown: the text, 
however, gives the words of my correspondent faithfully. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 53 

•mittee of privileges and elections, is not one .vhicli 
^ems to present Veh scope for a very interesting 
Sssion- but Mr. Henry's was -eo those -„ds 

which impart interest to every ^^^f,*^' .^^^^ *;"tin- 
The same year, 1764, is "memorable for the o«g;^ 
ation of that great question which led finally to the 
Xendence 'of theVited States. It h- been -d 
hy a'gentleman, at least as well ^uaMed^^^ 
any other now alive,* that iur. -n-eui.y J^ 

gave the first impulse to the ball of the revolution 
Torder to show'the correctness of .tl- PO^^' ^ 
is proper to ascertain the precise point to which the 
controversy with Great Britain had advanced, when 
Mr HenrJ first presented himself in the character of 

' In STh, 1764, the British parliament had passed 
resolutions, preparatory to the levying a revenue on 
resouuiuii=>, 1 1" •' Thp«p resolutions were 

the colonies by a stamp tax. Ihese ^esoiui 
communicated to the house of burgesses of Virginia 
through their committee of correspondence, by the 
CO o2l agent ; and having been maturely considered 
resulted in the appointment of a special committee to 
nrepare an address to the king, a memorial to the 
fords and a remonstrance to the house of commons. 
On the 18th of December, 1764, these papers were 
Sported and (after various amendments, which con- 
B der S dilu ed their spirit) received the concur- 
te of'the council. It is evident that, .vhi e they 
affirm, in clear and strong te™s, he const t„tona^ 
exemption of the colony from taxation l>ythe British 
parliament, they breathe, nevertheless, a tone so sup- 



♦Mr. Jefferson. 



54 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

pliant, and exhibit such a picture of anticipated suf- 
fering from the pressure of the tax on the exhausted 
resources of the colony, as to indicate that no oppo- 
sition beyond remonstrance was, at this time, medi- 
tated. Remonstrance, however, was vain. In Jan- 
uary, 1765, the famous stamp act was passed, to take 
effect in the colonies on the first of IS'ovember follow- 
ing. The annunciation of this measure seems at first 
to have stunned the continent from one extremity to 
the other. The presses, Avhich spread the intelligence 
among the people, were themselves manifestly con- 
founded ; and so far from inspiring the energy of re- 
sistance, they seemed rather disposed to have looked 
oiit for topics of consolation, under submission.* The 
truth is, that all ranks of society were confounded. 
ISTo one knew what to hope, w^hat more to fear, or 
what course was best to be taken. Some, indeed, were 
fond enough to entertain hopes that the united re- 
monstrances of the colonial legislatures, the fate of 
which had not yet been heard, might induce the 
mother-country to change her policy; these hopes, 
however, w^ere faint ; and few there were that enter- 
tained them. Many considered submission, in the 
present state of the colonies, as unavoidable; and 
that this was the opinion of Doctor Franklin himself, 
is apparent from the remark with which he took leave 

* Thus in the Pennsylvania Gazette of the 30th of May, 
1765, — " We hear the sums of money arising from the 
new stamp duties in North America, for the first five 
years, are chiefly to be applied toward making commo- 
dious post-roads from one province to another, erecting 
bridges where necessary, and other measures equally im- 
portant to facilitate an extensive trade." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 55 

of Mr. Ingersoll, on his departure for America.* 
The idea of resistance, by force, was nowhere glanced 
at in the most distant manner ; no heart seems to have 
been bold enough, at first, to conceive it. Men, on 
other occasions marked for intrepidity and decision, 
now hung back, unwilling to submit, and yet afraid 
to speak out in the language of bold open defiance. 
It was just at this moment of despondency in some 
quarters, suspense in others, and surly and reluctant 
submission wherever submission appeared, that Pat- 
rick Henry stood forth to raise the drooping spirit of 
the people, and to unite all hearts and hands in the 
cause of his country. With the view of making way 
for him, and placing him in the public councils of 
his country, Mr. William Johnson, who had been 
elected a member of the house of burgesses for the 
county of Louisa, vacated his seat by accepting the 
commission of coroner. The writ of election to sup- 
ply his place was awarded on the first of May, 1765, 
and on the 20th day of that month, it appears by the 
journals, that Mr. Henry was added to the committee 
for courts of justice. 

Here, again, he was upon a new theatre, and per- 
sonally unknown, except to those few who might have 
hear<l his argument on the contested election of Mr. 
Littlepage, the preceding winter. His dress and man- 
ners were still those of the plain planter, and, in his 
personal appearance, there was nothing to excite cu- 
riosity, or awaken expectation. The forms of the 
house, of which he was now for the first time a mem- 
ber, were, as has been stated, most awfully dignified ; 

* " Go home, and tell your countrymen to get children 
as fast as they can." — Gordon. 



56 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

its active members were composed of the landed aris- 
tocracy and their adherents; and amongst them were 
men to whose superiority of talents, as well as in- 
fluence and power, the yeomanry of the country had 
long been accustomed to bow with tacit and submis- 
sive deference. 

Among those whom Patrick Henry was destined to 
meet in the arena of debate, w^ere the following: John 
Kobinson, speaker of the house, one of the wealthiest 
men of the colony, and acknowledged head of the 
landed aristocracy; Peyton Randolph, the king's at- 
torney-general, eminent as a lawyer and parliament- 
arian; Richard Bland, one of the most enlightened 
and highly educated men of the colony; Edmund 
Pendleton, the lawyer and statesman with few equals 
and no superiors ; George Wythe, the elegant classical 
scholar; and Richard Henry Lee, the Cicero of the 
house. 

These were some of the stars of first magnitude 
that shone in the house of burgesses in the year 1765. 
There was yet a cluster of minor luminaries, which 
it were endless to delineate, but whose blended rays 
contributed to form that uncommon galaxy in which 
the plebeian Henry was now called upon to take his 
place. What had he to enable him to cope with all 
this lustre of talents and erudition ? Very little more 
than the native strength of his character ; a constancy 
of soul, which no array of power could shake ; a gen- 
ius that designed with all the boldness of Angelo, and 
an imagination that colored with all the felicity of 
Titian. 

It has been already stated, that Mr. Henry was 
elected with express reference to an opposition to the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 57 

stamp act. It was not, however, expected by his 
constituents, or meditated by himself, that he should 
lead the opposition. The addresses of the preceding 
year, made to the king, lords, and commons, in which 
so strong a truth had been stated, as that the stamp 
act, if persisted in, would reduce the colony to a 
state of slavery, founded a hope that those who had 
commenced the opposition by remonstrance, would 
continue to give it the eclat of their high names, by 
resistance of a bolder character, if bolder should be 
necessary. Mr. Henry waited, therefore, to file in 
under the first champion that should raise the banner 
of colonial liberty. In the meantime, another subject 
unexpectedly occurred to call him up, and it was on 
this other that he made his dehut in the house. 

The incident has been stated to me in the following 
terms, by Mr. Jefferson who heard the debate: — 
" The gentlemen of this country had, at that time, 
become deeply involved in that state of indebtment 
which has since ended in so general a crush of their 
fortunes. Mr. Kobinson, the speaker, was also the 
treasurer, an officer always chosen by the assembly. 
He was an excellent man, liberal, friendly, and rich. 
He had been drawn in to lend, on his own account, 
great sums of money to persons of this description ; 
and especially those who were of the assembly. He 
used freely for this purpose the public money, con- 
fiding for its replacement in his own means, and the 
securities he had taken on those loans. About this 
time, however, he became sensible that his deficit to 
the public was become so enormous, as that a discov- 
ery must soon take place, for as yet the public had no 
suspicion of it. He devised, therefore, with his 



58 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

friends in the assembly, a plan for a public loan 
office, to a certain amount, from which moneys might 
be lent on public account, and on good landed security 
to individuals. I find, in Rowle's Virginia Gazette 
of the 17th of May, 1765, this proposition for a loan 
office presented, its advantages detailed, and the plan 
explained. It seems to have been done by a borrow- 
ing member, from the feeling with which the motives 
are expressed, and to have been preparatory to the 
intended motion. Between the 17th and 30th, (the 
latter being the date of Mr. Henry's resolutions on 
the stamp act,) the motion for a loan office was ac- 
cordingly brought forward in the house of burgesses ; 
and had it succeeded, the debts due to Kobinson on 
these loans would have been transferred to the public, 
and his deficit thus completely covered. This state of 
things, however, was not yet known : but Mr. Henry 
attacked the scheme on other general grounds, in that 
style of bold, grand, and overwhelming eloquence, 
for which he became so justly celebrated afterward. 
I had been intimate with him from the j'Car 1759-60, 
and felt an interest in what concerned him ; and I can 
never forget a particular exclamation of his in the 
debate which electrified his hearers. It had been 
urged, that, from certain unhappy circumstances of 
the colony, men of substantial property had con- 
tracted debts, which, if exacted suddenly, must ruin 
them and their families, but with a little indulgence 
of time, might be paid with ease. ^ What, sir,' ex- 
claimed Mr. Henry, in animaderting on this, ^ is it 
proposed then, to reclaim the spendthrift from his 
dissipation and extravagance, by filling his pockets 
■with money ? ' These expressions are indelibly im- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 59 

pressed on my memory. He laid open with so much 
energy the spirit of favoritism, on which the proposi- 
tion was founded, and the abuses to which it would 
lead, that it was crushed in its birth. He carried 
with him all the members of the upper counties, and 
left a minority composed merely of the aristocracy of 
the country. From this time his popularity swelled 
apace ; and Mr. Robinson dying the year afterward, 
his deficit was brought to light, and discovered the 
true object of the proposition." * 

The exclamation above quoted by my correspon- 
dent as having electrified Mr. Henry's hearers, is a 

* In reply to this communication, I stated my surprise 
that no evidence of this motion was to be found on the 
journals of the day, and begged my correspondent to ex- 
plain it, which he does very satisfactorily in the following 
terms: — "Abortive motions are not always entered on the 
journals, or rather they are rarely entered. It is the 
modern introduction of yeas and nays which has given 
the means of placing a rejected motion on the journals: 
and it is likely that the speaker, who, as treasurer, was 
to be the loan officer, and had the direction of the jour- 
nals, would choose to omit an entry of the motion in this 
case. This accounts sufficiently for the absence of any 
trace of the motion on the journals. There was no sus- 
picion then, (so far at least as I knew), that Mr. Robinson 
had used the public money in private loans to his friends, 
and that the secret object of this scheme was to transfer 
those debtors to the public, and thus clear his accounts. 
I have diligently examined the names of the members on 
the journals of 1764, to see if any were still living, to 
whose memory we might recur on this subject; but I find 
not a single one now remaining in life. This debate must 
have been in 17G5 instead of 1764. The only surviving 
member of that year is Paul Carrington, sen., esq., who 
took his seat in the house after the debate in question. 



60 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

striking specimen of one oi his great excellences in 
speaking; which was, the power of condensing the 
substance of a long argument, into one short pithy 
question. The hearer was surprised, in finding him- 
self brought so suddenly and so clearly to a just con- 
clusion. He could scarcely conceive how it was ef- 
fected, and could not fail to regard, w^ith high admi- 
ration, the power of that intellect which could come 
at its ends by so short a course ; and work out its pur- 
poses w^ith the quickness and certainty of magic. 

The aristocracy were startled at such a phenome- 
non from the plebeian ranks. They could not be 
' otherwise than indignant at the presumption of an 
obscure and unpolished rustic, who, without asking 
the support or countenance of any patron among 
themselves, stood upon his own ground, and bearded 
them even in their den. That this rustic should have 
been able, too, by his single strength, to baffle their 
whole phalanx and put it to rout, was a mortification 
too humiliating to be easily borne. They affected to 
ridicule his vicious and depraved pronunciation, the 
homespun coarseness of his language, and his hypo- 
critical canting in relation to his humility and igno- 
rance. But they could not help admiring and envying 
his wonderful gifts ; that thorough knowledge of the 
human heart which he displayed ; that power of 
throwing his reasoning into short and clear aphor- 
isms ; which, desultory as they were, supplied, in a 
great degree, the place of method and logic ; that im- 
agination so copious, poetic, and sublime; the irresis- 
tible power with which he caused every passion to 
rise at his bidding; and all the rugged might and 
majesty of his eloquence. From this moment, he had 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 61 

no friends on the aristocratic side of the house. They 
looked upon him with envy and with terror. They 
were forced at length to praise his genius; but that 
praise was wrung from them, with painful reluc- 
tance. They would have denied it if they could. 
They would have overshadowed it; and did at first 
try to overshadow it, by magnifying his defects; but 
it would have been as easy for them to eclipse the 
splendor of the sun, by pointing to his spots. 

If, however, he had lost one side of the house by 
his undaunted manner of blowing up this aristocratic 
project, he had made the other side his fast friends 
Tliey had listened with admiration, unmixed with 
envy. Their souls had been struck with amazement 
and rapture, and thrilled with unspeakable sensa- 
tions which they had never felt before. The man, 
too, who had produced these effects, was one of them- 
selves. This was balm to them; for there is a wide 
difference between that distant admiration, which we 
pay as a tax, due to long-standing merit, in superior 
rank, and that throbbing applause which rushes spon- 
taneouslv and warm, from the heart, toward a new 
man and an equal. There is always something of 
latent repining, approaching to resentment, mingled 
with that respect which is exacted from us by rank; 
and we feel a secret gratification in seeing it hum- 
bled. In the same proportion, we love the man who 
has given us this gratification, and avenged, as it 
were, our own past indignities. Such was precisely 
the state of feeling which Mr. Henry produced, on 
the present occasion. The lower ranks of the house 
beheld and heard him with gratitude and veneration. 
After this victorious sally upon their party, the 



62 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

former leaders of the house were not very well dis- 
posed to look with a favorable eye on any proposition 
which he should make. They had less idea of con- 
tributing to foster the popularity and pamper the 
power of a man, who seemed born to be their scourge, 
and to drag down their ancient honors to the dust. 
It was in this unpropitious state of things, after hav- 
ing waited in vain for some step to be taken on the 
other side of the house, and when the session was 
within three days of its expected close, that Mr. 
Henry introduced his celebrated resolutions on the 
stamp act. 

I will not withhold from the reader a note of this 
transaction from the pen of Mr. Henry himself. It 
is a curiosity, and highly worthy of preservation. 
After his death, there was found among his papers 
one sealed, and thus endorsed : " Enclosed are the 
resolutions of the Virginia assembly in 1765, con- 
cerning the stamp act. Let my executors open this 
paper.'' Within was found the following copy of the 
resolutions, in Mr. Henry's handwriting: — 

'^ Resolved, That the first adventurers and settlers 
of this, his majesty's colony and dominion, brought 
with them, and transmitted to their posterity, and all 
other his majesty's subjects, since inhabiting in this, 
his majesty's said colony, all the privileges, fran- 
chises, and immunities, that have at any time been 
held, enjoyed and possessed bj^ the people of Great 
Britain. 

^' Resolved, That by two royal charters, granted by 
King James the first, the colonists, aforesaid, are de- 
clared entitled to all the privileges, liberties, and 
immunities of denizens and natural-born subjects, to 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 63 

all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding 
and born within the realm of England. 

" Resolved, That the taxation of the people by 
themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves to rep- 
resent them, who can only know what taxes the peo- 
ple are able to bear, and the easiest mode of raising 
them, and are equally affected by such taxes them- 
selves, is the distinguishing characteristic of British 
freedom, and without which the ancient constitution 
cannot subsist. 

'^ Resolved, That his majesty's liege people of this 
most ancient colony, have uninterruptedly enjoyed 
the right of being thus governed by their o^\ti assem- 
bly, in the article of their taxes and internal police, 
and that the same hath never been forfeited, or any 
other way given up, but hath been constantly recog- 
nized by the king and people of Great Britain. 

" Resolved, therefore, That the general assembly 
of this colony have the sole right and power to lay 
taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this 
colony ; and that every attempt to vest such power in 
any person or persons whatsoever, other than the gen- 
eral assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to 
destroy British as well as American freedom." 

On the back of the paper containing those resolu- 
tions, is the following endorsement, which is also in 
the handwriting of Mr. Henry himself : — '^ The with- 
in resolutions passed the house of burgesses in May, 
1765. They formed the first opposition to the stamp 
act, and the scheme of taxing America by the British 
parliament. All the colonies, either through fear, or 
want of opportunity to form an opposition, or from 
influence of some kind or other, had remained silent. 



64 LIFE OF P^RICK HENRY. 

I had been for the first time elected a burgess, a few 
days before ; was young, inexperienced, unacquainted 
with the forms of the house, and the members that 
composed it. Finding the men of weight averse to 
opposition, and the commencement of the tax at hand, 
and that no person was likely to step forth, I deter- 
mined to venture, and alone, unadvised, and un- 
assisted, on a blank leaf of an old law-book * wrote 
the within. Upon offering them to the house, violent 
debates ensued. Many threats were uttered, and 
much abuse cast on me, by the party for submission. 
After a long and warm contest, the resolutions passed 
by a very small majority, perhaps of one or two only. 
The alarm spread throughout America with astonish- 
ing quickness, and the ministerial party were over- 
whelmed. The great point of resistance to British 
taxation was universally established in the colonies. 
This brought on the war, which finally separated the 
two countries, and gave independence to ours. 
Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse will 
depend upon the use our people make of the blessings 
which a erracious God hath bestowed on us. If thev 
are wise, they will be great and happy. If they are 
of a contrary character, they will be miserable. Right- 
eousness alone can exalt them as a nation. 

" Reader ! whoever thou art, remember this ; and in 
thy sphere, practise virtue thyself, and encourage it 
in others. — P. Henry." 

Such is the short, plain, and modest account which 
Mr. Henry has left of this transaction. But other in- 
teresting particulars have been handed down by tra- 
dition, and live still in the recollection of one, at 

* Judge Tyler says, "an old Coke upon Littleton." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 65 

least, now in life, as the reader will presently see by 
his own statement. 

The resolutions having been prepared in the man- 
ner which has been mentioned, were shown by Mr. 
Henry to two members only, before they were offered 
to the house; these were John Fleming, a most re- 
spectable member for the county of Cumberland, and 
George Johnston, for that of Fairfax.'' * 

The reader will remark that the first four resolu- 
tions, as left by Mr. Henry, do little more than re- 
affirm the principles advanced in the address, memo- 
rial, and remonstrance of the preceding year ; that is, 
they deny the right assumed by the British parlia- 
ment, and assert the exclusive right of the colony to 
tax itself. There is an important difference, however, 
between those state papers and the resolutions, in the 
point of time and the circumstances under which they 
were brought forward, for the address and other state 

* Judge Winston, on the authority of Mr. Henry himself. 
The report of the day, that Mr. Johnston drew the reso- 
lutions, is certainly unfounded. Mr. Johnston, now only 
known from the circumstances of his having seconded Mr. 
Henry's resolutions, is one of those many friends of liberty 
who are sliding fast from the recollection of their coun- 
try, and who deserve to be rescued from oblivion, by a 
more particular notice than it is in my power to bestow 
upon them. Of Mr. Johnston, I can learn only, that he 
was a lawyer in the Northern Neck, highly respected in 
his profession; a scholar, distinguished for vigor of intel- 
lect, cogency of argument, firmness of character, love of 
order, and devotion to the cause of rational liberty — in 
chort, exactly calculated by his love of the cause, and the 
broad and solid basis of his understanding to uphold the 
magnificent structure of Henry's eloquence. 



66 I^IFE OF P^IRICK HENRY, 

papers were prepared before the stamp act had 
passed ; they do nothing more, therefore, than call in 
question, by a course of respectful and submissive 
reasoning, the propriety of exercising the right, be- 
fore it had been exercised ; and they are, moreover, 
addressed to the legislature of Great Britain, hy the 
way of prevention^ and in a strain of decent remon- 
strance and argument. But at the time v^hen Mr. 
Henry offered his resolutions, the stamp act had 
passed; and the resolutions were intended for the 
people of the colonies. It will also be observed, that 
the fifth resolution, as given by Mr. Henry, contains 
the bold assertion, that every attempt to vest the 
power of taxation over the colonies in any person or 
persons whatsoever, other than the general assembly, 
had a manifest tendency to destroy British, as well 
as American freedom ; which was asserting, in effect, 
that the act which had passed was an encroachment 
on the rights and liberties of the people, and 
amounted to a direct charge of tyranny and despotism 
against the British king, lords, and commons. 

It is not wonderful that even the friends of colonial 
rights who knew the feeble and defenceless situa- 
tion of this country, should be startled at a step so 
bold and daring. That effect was produced ; and the 
resolutions were resisted, not only by the aristocracy 
of the house, but by many of those who were after- 
ward distinguished among the brightest champions 
of American liberty. 

The following is Mr. Jefferson's account of this 
transaction : 

" Mr. Henry moved and Mr. Johnston seconded 
these resolutions successively. They were opposed by 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 67 

Messrs. Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe, and all 
the old members, whose influence in the house had, 
till then, been unbroken. They did it, not from any 
question of our rights, but on the ground that the 
same sentiments had been, at their preceding session, 
expressed in a more conciliatory form, to which the 
answers were not yet received. But toiTents of sub- 
lime eloquence from Henry,, backed by the solid rea- 
soning of Johnston, prevailed. The last, however, 
and strongest resolution w^as carried but by a single 
vote. The debate on it was most bloody. I was then 
but a student, and stood at the door of communica- 
tion between the house and the lobby (for as yet 
there was no gallery) during the whole debate and 
vote ; and I well remember that, after the numbers 
on the division were told and declared from the chair, 
Peyton Randolph (the attorney-general) came out at 
the door where I was standing, and said, as he en- 
tered the lobby : ' By God, I would have given 500 
guineas for a single vote : ' for one would have di- 
vided the house, and Robinson was in the chair, who 
he knew would have negatived the resolution. Mr. 
Henry left town that evening; and the next morn- 
ing before the meeting of the house, Col. Peter Ran- 
dolph, then of the coimcil, came to the hall of bur- 
gesses, and sat at the clerk's table till the house-bell 
rang, thumbing over the volumes of journals, to find 
a precedent for expunging a vote of the house, which, 
he said, had taken place while he was a member or 
clerk of the house, I do not recollect which. I stood 
by him at the end of the table, a considerable part of 
the time, looking on, as he turned over the leaves ; but 
I do not recollect whether he found the erasure. In 



68 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the meantime, some of the timid members, who had 
voted for the strongest resolution, had become 
alarmed ; and as soon as the house met, a motion was 
made and carried to expunge it from the journals. 
There being at that day but one printer, and he en- 
tirely under control of the governor, I do not 
know that this resolution ever appeared in print. I 
write this from memory : but the impression made on 
me at the time was such as to fix the facts indelibly in 
my mind. I suppose the original journal was among 
those destroyed by the British or its obliterated face 
might be appealed to. And here I will state, that 
Burk's statement of Mr. Henry's consenting to with- 
draw two resolutions, by way of compromise with his 
opponents, is entirely erroneous." 

The manuscript journal of the day is not to be 
found, whether it was suppressed, or casually lost, 
must remain a matter of uncertainty ; it disappeared, 
however, shortly after the session,* and therefore 
could not have been among the documents destroyed 
by the British during the revolutionary war, as con- 
jectured by Mr. Jefferson. 

In the interesting fact of the erasure of the fifth 
resolution, Mr. Jefferson is supported by the distinct 
recollection of Mr. Paul Carrington, late a judge of 
the court of appeals of Virginia, and the only sur- 
viving member, it is believed, of the house of bur- 
gesses of 1765. The statement is also confirmed, if 
indeed further confirmation were necessary, by the 

* " The manuscript journal was missing ten years before 
hostilities between the two countries; therefore could not 
have been destroyed as you supposed probable." — Pavi, 
Careington, senr. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. ^^ 

circumstance, that instead of the five resolutions, so 
solemnly recorded by Mr. Henry, as having passed 
the house, the journal of the day exhibits only the 
following four : — 

" Resolved, That the first adventurers and set- 
tlers of this his majesty's colony and dominion of 
Virginia, brought with them and transmitted to their 
posterity, and all others his majesty's subjects, since 
inhabiting in this his majesty's said colony, all the 
liberties, privileges, franchises, and immunities, that 
have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed by 
the people of Great Britain. 

^^ Eesolved, That by two royal charters, granted 
by King James I., the colonists aforesaid are de- 
clared entitled to all liberties, privileges, and im- 
munities of denizens and natural subjects to all in- 
tents and purposes, as if they had been abiding and 
born within the realm of England. 

" Resolved, That the taxation of the people, by 
themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves to 
represent them, who can only know^ what taxes the 
people are able to bear, or the easiest method of rais- 
ing them ; and must, themselves, be affected by every 
tax laid on the people, is the only security against a 
burdensome taxation, and the distingiaishing charac- 
teristic of British freedom, without which the an- 
cient constitution cannot exist. 

" Resolved, That his majesty's liege people of this 
his most ancient and loyal colony have, without in- 
terruption, enjoyed the inestimable right of being 
governed by such laws respecting their internal polity 
and taxation, as are derived from their own consent, 
with the approbation of their sovereign, or his sub- 



^0 LIFE OF pa;j|iick henry. 

stitiite ; and that the same hath never been forfeited 
or yielded up, but hath been constantly recognised by 
the kings and people of Great Britain.''^ * 

* Such are the resolutions, as they were amended and 
passed by the house, with the exception of that which was 
rescinded on the next day. — Journals of 1765, page 150. 
Several historical mistakes have been committed in rela- 
tion to these resolutions. Judge Marshall, in his life of 
Washington, (vol. 2d, note 4th, of the appendix), gives an 
erroneous copy of them, from the book called Prior Doc- 
uments; in this, he is set right by the journals: he repre- 
sents six as having been offered, and two rejected; his 
authority for this, again, is the Prior Documents: but he 
is contradicted by Mr. Henry himself, who represents five 
only as having been offered and passed, and Mr. Henry's 
written statement accords with the clear and strong recol- 
lection both of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Carrington. Mr. 
Burk gives the same erroneous copy with Judge Marshall, 
and adds to them several mistakes of his own: he says 
the resolutions passed, by a large majority, forty only 
having voted against them. Mr. Burk did not know the 
number of the members, or he would have known that 
a vote of forty, in the negative, would not have left a 
large majority in favor of the resolutions. But we have 
the authority of Mr. Henry himself, (as we have seen), of 
Mr. Jefferson, and of Mr. Carrington, for saying that the 
resolutions were carried by a majority of one only; on 
what authority Mr. Burk speaks, we are not informed. 
His w^hole account of Mr. Henry's proposal on the next 
day, to secede, and of his finally giving up two resolutions, 
for the sake of unanimity, is contradicted again by Mr. 
Henry, Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Carrington; there is no 
such statement in the papers of the day, and the author 
does not condescend to give us his authority. Mr. Burk's 
skeleton of Mr. Henry's speech, on that occasion, is be- 
lieved to be equally apocrychal; the author of these sketches 
has not been able to procure a single authentic trace 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 71 

" By these resolutions/' says Mr. Jefierson, " and 
his manner of supporting them, Mr. Henry took the 
lead out of the hands of those who had, theretofore, 
guided the proceedings of the house ; that is to say, 
of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Randolph." It was, 
indeed, the measure which raised him to the zenith of 
his glory. He had never before had a subject which 
entirely matched his genius, and was capable of draw- 
ing out all the powers of his mind. It was remarked 
of him, throughout his life, that his talents never 
failed to rise with the occasion, and in proportion 
with the resistance which he had to encounter. The 
nicety of the vote, on his last resolution, proves that 
this was not a time to hold in reserve any part of 
his forces. It was, indeed, an Alpine passage under 
circumstances even more unpropitious than those of 
Hannibal ; for he had not only to fight, hand to hand, 
the powerful party who w^ere already in possession of 
the heights, but at the same instant to cheer and ani- 
mate the timid band of followers, that were trem- 

of that speech, except the anecdote presently given in the 
text. Mr. Burk concludes his account of this affair thus: 
" Struck with the alarming tendency of these proceedings, 
the governor suddenly dissolved the assembly," &c. — Vol. 
3d, page 310. In opposition to this statement, we are told 
by Mr. Henry himself, that when he offered his resolu- 
tions, the session was near its regular close; and the 
journals prove the fact to have been so. Mr. Henry left 
town for home on the evening of the day on which his 
resolutions were adopted; it was on the next day (conse- 
quently in his absence) that the motion to rescind was 
made; and the printed journals show that day and the 
day following to have been occupied with the usual busi- 
ness which closes a legislative session. 



72 LIFE OF PATJPICK HENRY. 

bling, and f aintingj and drawing back below him. It 
was an occasion that called upon him to put forth all 
his strength, and he did put it forth, in such a man- 
ner as man never did before. The cords of argument 
with which his adversaries frequently flattered them- 
selves that they had bound him fast, became pack- 
threads in his hands. He burst them with as much 
ease as the unshorn Samson did the bands of the 
Philistines. He seized the pillars of the temple, 
shook them terribly, and seemed to threaten his op- 
ponents with ruin. It was an incessant storm of 
lightning and thunder, which struck them aghast. 
The faint-hearted gathered courage from his counte- 
nance, and cowards became heroes while they gazed 
upon his exploits. 

It was in the midst of this magnificent debate, 
while he was descanting on the tyranny of the obnox- 
ious act, that he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, and 
with the look of a god : ^^ Caesar had his Brutus — 
Charles the First, his Cromwell, — and George the 
Third — (/Treason!' cried the speaker — ^Treason, 
treason ! ' echoed from every part of the house. It 
was one of those trying moments which is decisive of 
character. Henry faltered not for an instant; but 
rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the speaker 
an eye of the most determined fire, he finished his 
sentence with the firmest emphasis) — may profit by 
their example. If this be treason, make the most of 
it." * 

* I had frequently heard the above anecdote of the cry 
of treason, but with such variations of the concluding 
words, that I began to doubt whether the whole might not 
be fiction. With a view to ascertain the truth, therefore. 



LIFE OF PATRICK: HENRY. ^^ 

This was the only expression of defiance which 
escaped him during the debate. He was, throughout 
life, one of the most perfectly and uniformly decor- 
ous speakers that ever took the floor of the house. He 
was respectful even to humility; and the provoca- 
tion must be gross indeed which would induce him to 
notice it. Yet, when he did notice it, better were it 
for the man never to have been born, than to fall into 
the hands of such an adversary. One lash from his 
scourge was infamy for life ; his look of anger or con- 
tempt was almost death. 

After this debate, there was no longer a question 
among the body of the people, as to Mr. Henry's 
being the first statesman and orator in Virginia. 
Those, indeed, whose ranks he had scattered, and 
whom he had thrown into the shade, still tried to 
brand him with the names of declaimer and dema- 
gogue. But this was obviously the effect of envy and 
mortified pride. A mere declaimer and demagogue 
could never have gained, much less have kept for 
more than thirty years, that ground which Mr. Henry 
held ; with a people, too, so cool, judicious, firm, and 
virtuous, as those who achieved the American revolu- 
tion. 

From the period of which we have been speaking, 
Mr. Henry became the idol of the people of Virginia ; 
nor was his name confined to his native state. His 

I submitted it to Mr. Jefferson as it had been given to me 
by Judge Tyler, and this is his answer: — "I well remem- 
ber the cry of treason, the pause of Mr. Henry at the name 
of George HI., and the presence of mind with which he 
closed his sentence, and baffled the charge vociferated." 
The incident, therefore, becomes authentic history. 



74 LIFE OF PATifcK HENRY. 

light and heat were seen and felt throughout the con- 
tinent ; and he was everywhere regarded as the great 
champion of colonial liberty. 

The impulse thus given by Virginia, was caught by 
the other colonies. Her resolutions were every where 
adopted with progressive variations. The spirit of 
resistance became bolder and bolder, until the whole 
continent was in a flame, and by the first of ]^ovem- 
ber, when the stamp act was, according to its pro- 
visions, to have taken effect, its execution had be- 
come utterly impracticable.* 

* The chronicles of the day exhibit, in a manner very 
curious and interesting, the progress of these feelings. 
We have already given a specimen of the drooping spirit of 
the Pennsylvania Gazette, on the first annunciation of the 
stamp act; but after Mr. Henry had touched with his 
match the train of American courage, its scintillations 
were seen, sparkling and flashing, on every page of this 
paper. Thus, in the paper of June 20th, 1775: — "We learn 
from the northward, that the stamp act is to take effect 
in America on all Saints' day, the first of November next. 
In the year 1755, on the 1st of November, happened that 
dreadful and memorable earthquake which destroyed the 
city of Lisbon." 



CHAPTER III. 

EVENTS LEADING TO THE CONTINENTAL COIS^GSESS. 

1766-1774. 

At the opening of the next session, the speaker an- 
nounced the repeal of the stamp act ; and the house 
of burgesses, in a paroxysm of feeling, voted a statue 
to the king, and an obelisk to the British patriots by 
whose exertions the repeal had been effected. But 
before these monuments of national gratitude could 
be executed the effervescence subsided; and on the 
9th of December, 1766, the bill which had been pre- 
pared for that purpose, was postponed to the first day 
of the next session; after which, we hear of it no 
more. 

At the session of 1766, a question of great interest 
in those days, and one of real importance to the col- 
ony, came on to be discussed in the house of bur- 
gesses. Mr. Robinson, who had so long held the 
joint ofiices of speaker and treasurer, was now dead. 
The general fact of his delinquency as treasurer was 
understood, although the sum was not yet ascer- 
tained ; and that delinquency, whatever it might be, 
was alleged to have arisen principally from loans 
made to members of the house of burgesses. As the 
speaker, although elected in the first instance by the 

^5 



76 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

house, could not act until approved by the governor, 
and, when so approved, was in office for seven years, 
re-eligible indefinitely — and, as in the recent instance 
of Mr. Robinson, it had been discovered, that an office 
so held was too apt to generate a devotion to the pur- 
poses of the British court — it was considered by the 
patriots in the house, as a measure of sound policy, to 
take out of the hands of the speaker so formidable an 
engine of corruption and power as the treasury of the 
colony.* A motion was therefore made to separate 
the office of treasurer from the speaker's chair, which 
was supported by Mr. Henry with his usual ability. 
An arduous struggle ensued. Innovations, however 
correct in themselves, never fail to startle those who 
have grown gray in a veneration for the existing order 
of things. They fancy that they see in every impor- 
tant change an indirect blow at the established govern- 
ment, and at the foundations of their own property. 
This union of the speaker's chair with the office of 
treasurer, was one of those errors in policy which 
time had consecrated, and it required a hand both 
steady and skilful to remove the veil and expose its 
deformity. That hand was furnished by Mr. Henry. 

* A correspondent furnishes the following note on this 
passage: — "There was but one clear and sound bottom 
on which the separation of the chair and the treasury was 
decided. The legislature made all the levies of money- 
payable into the hands of their speaker, over whom they 
had control. The only hold the governor had on him was, 
a negative on his appointment as speaker at every new 
election, which amounted, consequently, to a negative on 
him as treasurer, and disposed him, so far, to be obse- 
quious to the governor." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 77 

The union of boldness and decency which composed 
his character, of decisive energy in the support of his 
own opinions, and respectful tenderness toward those 
of others, fitted him peculiarly for the discharge of 
this duty. The house admired, on this occasion, the 
facility with which he could adapt himself to any 
subject. He had that foundation of strong natural 
sense, without which genius is a misfortune; an in- 
stinctive accuracy of judgment, which always pro- 
portioned his efforts to the occasion. He was never 
guilty of the ridiculous and common error among 
young members, of attempting to force the subject 
bej^ond its nature — of swelling trifles into conse- 
quence, and working the ocean into tempest, 

" To waft a feather, or to drown a fly." 

It is almost superfluous to add, that such a cause, in 
the hands of such an advocate, did not fail of success. 
The motion for separating the two offices being car- 
ried, a committee was appointed to examine the ac- 
counts of the late treasurer, and their report dis- 
closed an enormous deficit, exceeding a hundred thou- 
sand pounds. 

On the separation of the offices of speaker and 
treasurer, Peyton Kandolph, the attorney-general, 
was elected to the chair ; and Kobert C. ISTicholas, an 
eminent lawyer and a most virtuous man, to the office 
of treasurer. 

After having tried his strength for several years on 
the legislative floor, against some of the brightest 
champions of the bar, Mr. Henry came, in the year 
1769, to the bar itself of the general court. " The 



78 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

profits of his practice, theretofore/' says Judge Win- 
ston, " must have been very moderate. For about 
this time, he informed me that he thought his prop- 
erty was not worth more than fifteen hundred 
pounds ; adding, that if he could only make it double 
that sum, he should be entirely content." 

At this bar, he entered into competition with all 
the first legal characters in the colony, some of whom 
had been educated at the Temple.* Mr. Pendleton 
and Mr. Wythe have been already mentioned : but, in 
addition to these, he had to encounter Mr. John Ran- 
dolph, Mr. Thompson Mason, Mr. Robert C. Nicho- 
las,* Mr. Mercer, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Jefferson, all of 
them masters of the learning of their profession, and 
all of them men of pre-eminent abilities. 

It cannot be expected from Mr. Henry's legal prep- 
aration, that he was able to contend with these gentle- 
men on a mere question of law. He wanted that 
learning whose place no splendor of genius can supply 
to the lawyer; and he wanted those habits of steady 

* The Temple is the center of the district of the courts of 
law in London. It is the joint property of the two Inns of 
Court known as the Society of the Inner Temple and of the 
Middle Temple. Each of these societies has the right of call- 
ing properly qualified persons to the degree of barrister, a 
right, however, which is shared by Gray's Inn and Lincoln's 
Inn, The Inns of the Temple are located in or near Chancery 
Lane, in the heart of the busiest part of London, and yet they 
are '* as secluded as the cloister of a cathedral." Among the 
former residents of the Inns of the Temple were Goldsmith, 
Addison, and Steele. With American readers the interest in 
the institution is largely connected with the fictitions char- 
acters in the writings of Dickens and Thackeray. The Temple 
got its name from the fact that the Knights Templar had a 
branch in that part of the city. 



I 

LIFE OF PATRICK HENEY. 79 

and persevering application, without which that 

^f :!r;::t:St a iur,, that he was in 
..^tLl client The.e,^W^^^^^^^^ 

irof"m riefliting e.pre.ion. 

Tthe countenance, as to what was^P-.ng .n the 

hearts of his hearers, availed him fully, ihe ]u / 

;„V,t V ooniiiosed of entire strangers, yet he rareiy 

uil to knrthem, man hy man, hefore the evidence 

w closed There was no studied fixture of features 

That eo'w io"s hi'i'^ '''' ''''''''''' ''°" ''"rrr,™ 

td^^perienceV-iew T.^^^^^^^^^^ 

•ItXtro^th^rrromt L ohservm. Or 
fhe doubted whether his conclusions were correc , 
from thTcxhibitions of countenance during the nar- 
ratL of the evidence, he had a mode of playing a 
piSe as it were, upon the pjy, in his exordium 
Ihkh never failed to " wake into life each silent 
Ttr ng'^His style of address, on these occasions,_is 
saVd to have resembled very much that of the scrip- 
i 1 was strongly marked with the same sin. 
pi cky, the same energy, the same pathos. He 
founded no alarm; he made no parade, to put the 
u y on their guard. It was all so natural, so hum- 
E u— ming, that they were carried im W" 
Hhiv ak.ng and attuned to his purpose, until some 
master to"Si dissolved them into tears. His language 
of tassVon was perfect. There was no word 'of 
learned length or. thundering sound," to break the 
charm I* ^ad almost all the stillness of solitary 
h nSng. It was a sweet revery, a delicious trance. 



80 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

His voice, too, had a wonderful effect. He had a 
singular power of infusing it into a jury, and mixing 
its notes with their nerves, in a manner which it is 
impossible to describe justly; but which produced a 
thrilling excitement, in the happiest concordance 
with his designs, l^o man knew so well as he did 
what kind of topics to urge to their understandings ; 
nor what kind of simple imagery to present to their 
hearts. His eye, which he kept riveted upon them, 
assisted the process of fascination, and at the same 
time informed him what theme to press, or at what 
instant to retreat, if by rare accident he touched an 
unpropitious string. And then he had such an ex- 
uberance of appropriate thoughts of apt illustrations, 
of apposite images, and such a melodious and varied 
roll of the happiest words, that the hearer was never 
wearied by repetition, and never winced from an ap- 
prehension that the intellectual treasures of the 
speaker would be exhausted. 

A striking example of this witchery of his elo- 
quence, even on common subjects, was related by the 
late Major Joseph Scott, the marshal of this state. 
This gentleman had been summoned, at great incon- 
venience to his private affairs, to attend as a witness 
a distant court, in which Mr. Henry practised. The 
cause which had carried him thither having been dis- 
posed of, he was setting out in great haste to return, 
when the sheriff summoned him to serve on a jury. 
He was alarmed at the prospect of a long detention, 
and made an unavailing effort with the court to get 
himself discharged from the jury. He was compelled 
to take his seat. When his patience had been nearly 
exhausted by the previous speakers, Mr. Henry rose 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. gl 

to conclude the cause, and having much matter to 
answer, the major stated that he considered himself a 
prisoner for the evening, if not for the night. But, 
to his surprise, Mr. Henry appeared to have con- 
sumed not more than fifteen minutes in the reply; 
and he would scarcely believe his own watch, or those 
of the other jurymen, when they informed him that 
he had in reality been speaking upward of two hours. 

The defence of criminal causes was his great pro- 
fessional forte. It seems that the eighth day of the 
general court was formerly set apart for criminal 
business. Mr. Henry made little or no figure during 
the civil days of the court ; but on the eighth day he 
was the monarch of the bar. These causes brought 
him into direct collision wdth Mr. John Randolph, 
who had now succeeded Peyton as the attorney-gen- 
eral. * 

Mr. Randolph was, in person and manners, among 
the most elegant gentlemen in the colony, and in his 
profession one of the most splendid ornaments of the 
bar. He was a polite scholar, as well as a profound 
lawyer, and his eloquence also was of a high order. 
His voice, action, style, were stately, and uncom- 
monly impressive ; but gigantic as he was in relation 
to other men, he was but a pigmy, when opposed in a 
criminal trial to the arch magician, Henry. In those 
cases Mr. Henry was perfectly irresistible. He 
adapted himself, without effort, to the character of 
the cause ; seized, with the quickness of intuition, its 
defensible point, and never permitted the jury to 
lose sight of it. Sir Joshua Reynolds has said of 
Titian, that, by a few strokes of his pencil, he knew 
how to mark the image and character of whatever ob- 



8fi UFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ject he attempted; and produced by this means a 
truer representation than any of his predecessors, who 
finished every hair. In like manner, Mr. Henry, by 
a few master-strokes upon the evidence, could in gen- 
eral stamp upon the cause whatever image or charac- 
ter he pleased ; and convert it into tragedy or comedy, 
at his sovereign will, and with a power which no ef- 
forts of his adversary could counteract. He never 
wearied the jury by a dry and minute analysis of the 
evidence ; he did not expend his strength in finishing 
the hairs; he produced all his high effect by those 
rare master-touches, and by the resistless skill with 
which, in a very few words, he could mould and color 
the prominent facts of a cause to his purpose. Hence 
he was, beyond doubt, the ablest defender of crim- 
inals in Virginia, and will probably never be equalled 
again. 

It has been observed, that Mr. Henry's knowledge 
of the common law was extremely defective ; but his 
attendance upon the general court was calculated to 
cure that defect, in a considerable degree. Thus im- 
proving every opportunity, there is reason to believe 
that a few years must have made him not only a mas- 
ter of the general canons of property, but of the modi- 
fications and exceptions of more frequent occurrence, 
by which those cannons are restrained and governed. 
In support of this conclusion, I find that in January, 
1773, Kobert C. Nicholas, who had enjoyed the first 
practice at the bar, and who, by virtue of his office of 
treasurer, was forced to relinquish that practice, com- 
mitted, by a public advertisement, his unfinished busi' 
ness to Mr. Henry ; a step which a man so remark- 
ably scrupulous in the discharge of every moral duty] 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 83 

would not have taken, had there been any incompe- 
tency on the part of his substitute. 

The British ministry, however, did not permit Mr. 
Henrv to waste himself in forensic exertions. The 
joy of the Americans, on the repeal of the stamp act, 
was very short-lived. That measure had not been, 
on the part of the British parliament, a voluntary 
sacrifice to truth and right. The ministry and their 
friends disavowed this ground ; and were forward on 
every occasion, to convince the colonies that they had 
nothing to expect from either the clemency or the 
magnanimity of the British cabinet. Thus on a 
question of supplies for the army, in the session of 
parliament of 1766-7, a motion was made in the 
house of commons, that the revenues arising and to 
arise in America, be applied to subsisting the troops 
now there, and those other regiments ivhicli it is pro- 
posed to send; in sup}X)rt of which, that brilliant po- 
litical meteor, Charles Townsend, urged, among other 
things " the propriety of more troops heing sent to 
America and of their heing quartered in the large 
towns. He said, that he had a plan preparing, which 
he would lay before the house, for the raising of sup- 
plies in America. That the legislative authority of 
Great Britain extended to every colony in every par- 
ticular. That the distinction between internal and 
external taxes was nonsense; and that he voted for 
the repeal of the stamp act, not because it was not a 
good act, but because, at that time, there appeared a 
propriety in repealing it. He added, that he re- 
peated the sentence, that the galleries might hear him, 
and after that, he did not expect to have his statue 



84 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

erected in America: in all which, Mr. Grenville 
joined him fully." 

This temper soon manifested itself in open acts, 
and turned the late joy of the colonies into mourning. 

The first obnoxious measure was a stern demand of 
satisfaction from the legislatures of the colonies, for 
the injuries which had been done to the stamp officers 
and their adherents. The legislature of Massachu- 
setts, of whom this demand was first made, very re- 
spectfully, and with good reason, questioned the pro- 
priety and justice of taxing the whole colony for the 
excesses of a few individuals, which they had neither 
prompted nor approved ; for the sake of peace, how- 
ever, and in the spirit of accommodation, that satis- 
faction was given ; but they annexed to their vote of 
satisfaction a grant of pardon to the rioters ; and, in 
England, according to the usual courtesy of that 
country, nothing was said of the satisfaction, while 
the pardon was treated as a most insolent and impu- 
dent usurpation of the royal authority. 

The next step was that suggested by Mr. Town- 
send, of quartering large bodies of troops upon the 
chief towns in the colonies, and demanding of the 
several colonial legislatures a provision for their 
comfortable support and accommodation. A more 
exasperating measure could scarcely have been de- 
vised. The very presence of those myrmidons was 
an insult ; for it was a direct reflection on the fidelity 
of the colonists. Their object was perfectly under- 
stood : it was to curb the just and honorable spirit of 
the people; to dragoon them into submission to the 
parliamentary claim of taxation, and reduce them to 
the condition of vassals, governed by the right of con- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 85 

quest. The rudeness of the soldiery, too, was well 
calculated to keep up and increase the irritation, 
which their presence alone would have been suffi- 
cient to excite. In Boston, they were in the habit of 
stopping the citizens in the streets, and compelling 
them to answer insulting inquiries, or committing 
them to confinement on their refusal, assigning, as 
the ground of their conduct, that the town was a gar- 
risoned town. In ^ew York, they provoked a contest 
with the people, by making war upon a liberty pole, 
which was the first object of their earthly devotions, 
and Avhich the soldiers continually destroyed or at- 
tempted to destroy, as soon as it could be replaced. 
And, as if all this insult and humiliation were not 
enough, the colonies were to be constrained to tax 
themselves, to foster and cherish those instruments of 
their degradation. 

The legislature of Xew York, in a tone at least 
sufficiently submissive for the occasion, and on the 
false ground of the inability of the colony, begged 
to be excused from making the provision. For this 
high offence, the legislative power of that colony was 
abolished by act of parliament, until they should 
submit to make the provision which was required, and 
they did submit. 

A body of British troops, alleged to have been 
driven by stress of weather into Boston, in the recess 
of the colonial legislature, had been provided for out 
of the public moneys, by the governor and his coun- 
cil. The legislature met shortly afterward, and re- 
monstrated against this unconstitutional appropria- 
tion, with that Roman firmness and dignity which 
marked the character of Massachusetts in every stage 



86 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

of the contest. But Governor Bernard, highly indig- 
nant at what he affected to consider as presumption, 
made such a communication upon the subject to the 
British court as had, and was designed to have, no 
other effect than to widen the breach, and inflame 
more highly these animosities which already required 
no new aggravation. 

These military preparations Avere well understood 
to be the harbingers of some unconstitutional act, the 
execution of which they were necessary to enforce. 
Why those preparations were restricted to the north- 
ern states, and more particularly to Massachusetts, 
has never been satisfactorily explained. There was 
no colony which resisted with more firmness and con- 
stancy the pretensions of the British parliament than 
that of Virginia; yet no military force was thought 
necessary, during the lives of the governors Fauquier 
and Bottetourt, to keep down the spirit of rebellion in 
this colony. A solution of the difficulty may perhaps 
be found in the character of the different governors. 
Virginia had the good fortune, during this period, to 
be governed by enlightened and amiable men, who 
saw and did justice to the motives and measure of re- 
sistance which was meditated. 

These preparatory steps having been taken, an act 
of parliament was passed, imposing certain duties on 
glass, white and red lead, painters^ colors, tea, and 
paper, imported into the colonies. This act was to 
take effect on the 20th of N^ovember, 1767; and, to 
insure its oj^eration, another act authorized the king 
to appoint a board of trade to reside in the colonies, 
and to instruct them at his pleasure and without 
limit, as to the mode of executing their duties under 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 87 

this law. A commission accordingly issued, by which 
the commissioners were armed Avith a power of search 
and seizure, at their discretion ; with authority to call 
for aid upon the naval and military establishments 
within the colony ; and tvith an exemption from 'prose- 
cution or responsibility before any of the hing's 
courts, for whatsoever they might do, by any con- 
struction of their commi^ssion. 

Another measure which gave great offence to the 
colonies, was the establislnnent of a board of admi- 
ralty, with extensive powers, supported by large 
salaries independent of the colonies, yet drawn from 
the revenues compulsorily levied upon them ; and the 
appointment, also, of common law judges, to be paid 
by the croA\T3 out of the revenues of the colony, and 
to hold their offices during the king's pleasure. 

To all these outrages the legislatures of the colonies 
answered by petitions, memorials, remonstrances, and 
letters, addressed to the friends of colonial liberty in 
England; blending, with the strongest professions of 
loyalty, the expression of their hope, that those obnox- 
ious measures would be reconsidered and reversed, 
and the colonies protected in their ancient and un- 
alienable rights. In reply, they received from the 
kindest of their English friends, only exhortations to 
patience under their sufferings; by the court-party, 
menaces and anathemas were brandished over their 
heads; and the commissioners of the revenue, to- 
gether with their auxiliaries, the naval and military 
officers and soldiery, continued to outrage and insult 
them, both in their persons and property. 

The people of Massachusetts, with the view of frus- 
trating the new revenue bill, entered into an associa- 



88 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tion, by whicli they bound themselves not to import 
from Great Britain, or use any of the articles taxed ; 
and included in the resolution every article of British 
manufacture which was not of the first and most in- 
dispensable necessity. The legislature of that state 
also resolved on a circular-letter to their sister-colon- 
ies, inviting their concurrence and co-operation to- 
ward procuring relief, in a constitutional way, from 
the grievances under which they were all suffering. 
This measure having been reported by Governor Ber- 
nard, with his usual embellishments, to the Earl of 
Hillsborough, the British minister for the American 
department, that minister required the governor to 
demand of the legislature an immediate rescission of 
their resolution, on pain of being forthwith dissolved. 
They refused to rescind, and were dissolved accord- 
ingly. The same minister also addressed a circular- 
letter to the governors of the other colonies, exhort- 
ing them to crush this correspondence and concert 
amongst the colonial legislatures in the bud, by exact- 
ing from them an assurance that they would not 
answer the circular of Massachusetts. They refused 
to give such assurance, and were in their turn dis- 
solved. 

These violent measures, however, produced an ef- 
fect very different from that which was expected to 
flow from them. The dissolution of their legislatures 
swelled the catalogue of their wrongs, and ministered 
additional fuel to the resentments of the people. The 
non-importation agreement became general ; and, by 
means of committees established in the several colon- 
ies, its execution was guarded with a vigilance which 
could not be eluded. A breach of it was infamy, in- 
evitable and unpardonable. Its observance was a 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 89 

badge of honor, by which the patriot-colonist was 
proud to be distinguished. The privation was, in- 
deed, in many respects severe, but the sufferers were 
upheld by that kind of holy fortitude which enabled 
the Christian martyrs to smile amidst the flames, and 
to triumph, even in the agonies of death. Every 
grade of society, all ages, and both sexes, kindled in 
this sacred competition of patriotism. The ladies of 
the colonies, in the dawn, and throughout the whole 
progress of the revolution, shone with pre-eminent 
lustre in this war of fortitude and self-denial. They 
renounced, without a sigh, the use of the luxuries and 
even of the comforts to which they had been accus- 
tomed ; and felt a nobler pride in appearing dressed 
in the simple productions of their own looms, than 
they had ever experienced from glittering in the 
brightest ornaments of the east. 

The British court looked upon this trial of virtuous 
fortitude with surly and inexorable rigor. They 
seemed determined to carry the point, at every haz- 
ard. The sufferings of their own merchants and man- 
ufacturers were forgotten, in the barbarous pleasure 
with which they contemplated the sufferings of the 
colonists. It is not in human nature to continue long 
to return good for evil, affection for cruelty. The ad- 
miration and devotion of the colonies for the parent- 
country became gradually weaker. This transition of 
feeling is most interestingly marked in the chronicles 
of the day. The epithets, " our kind and indulgent 
mother," with which she was wont to be greeted, were 
progressively changed into " unnatural parent^ — cruel 
stepmother — proud, merciless oppressor — haughty, 
unfeeling, and unrelenting tyrant.'' This state of 



90 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

feeling was aggravated bj the collisions whicli were 
perpetually occurring between the king's soldiery and 
the people of the towns in which they were quartered. 
The streets of I^ew York and of Boston were the 
theatres of continual riots, ending almost invariably 
in blood, and not unfrequently in death. The news- 
papers of the day teem with the detail of scenes of 
this sort ; and from the effect which they produce on 
the reader at this distance of time, it is not very diffi- 
cult to conceive what must have been their operation 
on the people of that day, already goaded to madness 
by previous injuries. 

It is not my purpose to record the series of meas- 
ures which led to the dismemberment of the British 
empire. This is the function of the historian. My 
business is only with Mr. Henry ; and, for my pur- 
pose, nothing more is necessary than to recall the gen- 
eral character of the contest, for the purpose of show- 
ing the part which he bore in it. The revolution may 
be truly said to have commenced with his resolutions 
in 1765. From that period not an hour of settled 
peace had existed between the two countries. It is 
true, that the eruption produced by the stamp act 
had subsided with its repeal ; and the people had 
resumed their ancient settlements and occupations; 
but there was no peace of the heart or of the mind. 

The house of burgesses of Virginia, which had led 
the opposition to the stamp act, kept their high ground 
during the Avhole of the ensuing contest. Mr. Henry, 
having removed again from Louisa to his native 
county, in the year 1761 or 1768, continued a mem- 
ber of the public councils till the close of the revolu- 
tion ; and there could be no want of boldness in any 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 91 

T,n^v of whicli he was a member. The session of 
1768-9 Vis marked by a set of resolutions so strong 
L to have excited even the amiable and popular Bo - 
tit to displeasure. By those resouUons they e 
asserted, in the most emphatic terms, the exclusive 
r fht of the colony to tax themselves in all cases wnat- 
eS complained'of the recent acts of parliament, as 
Tmanv violations of the British constiUition; and 
remonstrated, vigorously, against the right of trans 
porting the f eeborn subjects of these colonies to Eng- 
hnito take their trial before prejudiced tribunals, 
f" ices alleged to be committed in the colonies. 
The tradition with regard to these ''e^^]" ;^' *\'' 
they were agreed to in a committee of the whole on 
one dly, but not reported to the house, with the view 
ofprev uting their appearance on the journal of the 
next dav, before they could be completely passed 
°hrou<^hVhe forms of the house; apprehending from 
the fate of the Massachusetts legislature that a 
knowledge of these resolutions, on the part of the gov- 
ernor ^^uld produce an immediate dissolution of 
the house. When the house rose for the evening, 
however, the fact of their having passed such resolu- 
tions wis whispered to the governor; and he en- 
deavored in vain to procure a copy of them from Mr. 
Wythe the clerk. On the next day, the house, fore- 
seeing the event, met on the instant of the ringing of 
he bell, and with closed doors received the report of 
their r;solutions, considered, adopted a^d ordered 
them to be entered upon their journals; which they 
had scarcely done when they were summoned to a - 
tend the governor, and were dissolved Mr 

Speaker," said he, " and gentlemen of the house of 



92 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

representatives^ I iiave heard of your resolves, and 
augur ill of their effects ; you have made it my duty 
to dissolve you, and you are accordingly dissolved/' 

But the dissolution of the house of burgesses did 
not change the materials of which it had been com- 
posed. The same members were re-elected without a 
single exception, and the same determined spirit of 
resistance continued to diffuse itself from the legisla- 
ture over the colony which they represented, and to 
animate by sympathy the neighboring colonies. This 
house had the merit of originating that powerful en- 
gine of resistance, corresponding committees between 
the legislatures of the different colonies.* The meas- 
ure was brought forward by Mr. Dabney Carr, a new 
member from the county of Louisa, in a committee of 
the whole house, on the 12th of March, 1773 ; and the 
resolutions, as adopted, now stood upon the journals 
of the day, in the following terms : — 

" Whereas, the minds of his majesty's faithful sub- 
jects in this colony have been much disturbed by 
various rumors and reports of proceedings, tending 
to deprive them of their ancient, legal, and constitu- 
tional rights ; 

" And whereas, the affairs of this colony are fre- 
quently connected with those of Great Britain, as 

♦The state of Massachusetts is entitled to equal honor: 
the measures were so nearly coeval in the two states, as 
to render it impossible that either could have borrowed it 
from the other. The messengers, who bore the propositions 
from the two states, are said to have crossed each other 
on the way. This is Mr. Jefferson's account of it; and Mrs. 
Warren, in her very interesting history of the revolution 
admits, that the measure was original on the part of Vir- 
ginia. See the note to page 110 of her first volume. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 93 

well as tlie neighboring colonies, which renders a 
communication of sentiments necessary: in order, 
therefore, to remove the uneasiness, and to quiet the 
minds of the people, as well as for the other good pur- 
poses above mentioned : — 

" Be it resolved. That a standing committee of 
correspondence and inquiry be appointed, to consist 
of eleven persons, to wit : the Honorable Peyton Ran- 
dolph, esquire, Robert C ^Nicholas, Richard Bland, 
Richard H. Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pen- 
dleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, 
Archibald Cary, and Thomas Jefferson, esquires, any 
six of whom to be a committee, whose business it shall 
be to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence 
of all such acts and resolutions of the British parlia- 
ment, or proceedings of administration, as may relate 
to, or affect the British colonies in America; and to 
keep up and maintain a correspondence and commu- 
nication with our sister-colonies, respecting those im- 
portant considerations ; and the result of such of their 
proceedings, from time to time, to lay before this 
house. 

" Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said 
committee, that they do, without delay, inform them- 
selves particularly of the principles and authority on 
which was constituted a court of inquiry, said to 
have been lately held in Rhode Island, with powers 
to transport persons accused of offences committed in 
America, to places beyond the seas, to be tried. 

" The said resolutions being severally read a sec- 
ond time, were upon the question severally put 
thereupon, agreed to by the house, nemine contradi- 
cente. 



94 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

'^ Resolved, That the speaker of this house do 
transmit to the speakers of the different assemblies 
of the British colonies on the continent, copies of the 
said resolutions, and desire that they will lay them 
before their respective assemblies, and request them 
to appoint some person or persons of their respective 
bodies, to communicate from time to time with the 
said committee." 

Mr. Carres resolutions were supported successively 
by Mr. Henry, and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, with 
their usual ability. 

It is not improbable, as it has been suggested, that 
the strongly-marked distinction of ranks which pre- 
vailed in this country, and the resentment, if not 
envy, with which the poorer classes looked up to the 
splendor and ostentation of the landed aristocracy, 
had a considerable agency in inflaming Mr. Henry's 
hostility to the British court. He probably regarded 
the untitled nobles of Virginia as a sort of spurious 
emanation from the royal stock ; connected them in 
his resentments, and transferred from the effect to 
the cause, the larger stream of his indignation. He 
had a rooted aversion and even abhorrence to everv 
thing in the shape of pride, cruelty, and tyranny ; and 
could not tolerate that social inequality from which 
they proceeded, and by which they were nourished. 
The principle which he seems to have brought with 
him into the world, and which certainly formed the 
guide of all his public actions, was, that the whole 
human race was one family, equal in their rights, and 
their birthright liberty. 

The elements of his character were most happily 
mingled for the great struggle which was now com- 



LIFE OF Px\TRICK HENRY. 95 

ing on. His views were not less steady tlian tliey 
were bold. His vision pierced deeply into futurity ; 
and long before a whisper of independence had been 
beard in this land, he had looked through the whole 
of the approaching contest, and saw, with the eye and 
the rapture of a prophet, his country seated aloft 
among the nations of the earth. A striking proof of 
this prescience, is given in an anecdote communicated 
to me by Mr. Pope. These are his words : — ^^ I am 
informed by Col. John Overton, that before one drop 
of blood was shed in our contest with Great Britain, 
he was at Col. Samuel Overton's, in company with 
Mr. Henry, Col. Morris, John Hawkins, and Col. 
Samuel Overton, when the last-mentioned gentleman 
asked Mr. Henry, ' whether he supposed Great Brit- 
ain would drive her colonies to extremities ? — And if 
she should, what he thought would be the issue of the 
war ? ' When Mr. Henry, after looking round to see 
who were present, expressed himself confidentially 
to the company in the following manner : — " She ivill 
drive us to extremities — no accommodation will take 
place — ^hostilities will soon commence — and a des- 
perate and bloody touch it will be.' ' But,' said Col. 
Samuel Overton, ' do you think, Mr. Henry, that an 
infant nation as we are, without discipline, arms, am- 
munition, ships of war, or money to procure them — 
do you think it possible, thus circumstanced, to op- 
pose successfully the fleets and armies of Great Brit- 
ain ? ' ^ I will be candid with you,' replied Mr. 
Henry. ' I doubt whether we shall be able, alone, to 
cope with so powerful a nation. But,' continued he, 
(rising from his chair, with great animation,) 
* where is France ? Where is Spain ? Where is Hoi- 



96 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

land ? the natural enemies of Great Britain. — Where 
will they be all this while ? Do you suppose they 
will stand by, idle and indifferent spectators to the 
contest ? Will Louis XVI. be asleep all this time ? 
Believe me, no I When Louis XVI. shall be satisfied 
by our serious opposition, and our Declaration of In- 
dependence, that all prospect of a reconciliation is 
gone, then, and not till then, will he furnish us with 
arms, ammunition, and clothing; and not with these 
only, but he will send his fleets and armies to fight 
our battles for us ; he will form with us a treaty of- 
fensive and defensive, against our unnatural mother. 
Spain and Holland will join the confederation ! Our 
independence will be established! and we shall take 
our stand among the nations of the earth ! ' Here he 
ceased ; and Col. John Overton says, he shall never 
forget the voice and prophetic manner with which 
these predictions were uttered, and which have been 
since so literally verified. Col. Overton says, at the 
word independence J the company appeared to be 
startled; for they had never heard any thing of the 
kind before even suggested.'^ 

It was anticipated, that the establishment of corre- 
sponding committees would lead eventually to a con- 
gress of the colonies, and that measure was brought 
about by the following circumstances : — 

The people of Boston having thrown into the sea 
a vessel load of tea, which was attempted to be forced 
upon them,"^ were punished by an act of parliament, 

* This act is known in history as " The Boston Tea 
Party." Consignments of tea were also refused in one way 
or another, at New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, and 
Charleston. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 97 

which shut up their port, from and after the first day 
of June, 1774. The house of burgesses of Virginia 
being in session when this act arrived, passed an 
order, which stands upon their journal in the follow- 
ing terms : — 

" Tuesday, the 2Uh of May, 14 Geo, III, 1774. 

" This house, being deeply impressed with appre- 
hension of the great dangers to be derived to British 
America, from the hostile invasion of the city of Bos- 
ton, in our sister-colony of Massachusetts bay, whose 
commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June 
next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly 
necessary that the said first day of June next be set 
apart, by the members of this housCj as a day of fast- 
ing, humiliation, and prayer, devoutly to implore the 
Divine interposition for averting the heavy calamity 
which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and 
the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one 
mind, firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, 
every injury to American rights; and that the minds 
of his majesty and his parliament may be inspired 
from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, 
to remove from the loyal people of America all cause 
of danger from a continued pursuit of measures preg- 
nant with their ruin. 

" Ordered, therefore. That the members of this 
house do attend in their places, at the hour of ten in 
the forenoon, on the said first day of June next, in 
order to proceed with the speaker and the mace to the 
church in this city, for the purposes aforesaid ; and 
that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read 



98 I'IFE OF PAT^pCK HENRY. 

prayers, and to preach a sermon suitable to the occa- 



sion.'^ 



In consequence of this order, Governor Dunmore, 
on the following day, dissolved the house, with this 
speech : — 

^^ Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the house of bur- 
gesses: I have in my hand a paper published by 
order of your house conceived in such terms as reflect 
highly upon his majesty and the parliament of Great 
Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve you, and 
you are dissolved accordingly." 

The members immediately withdrew to the Ral- 
eigh tavern, where they formed themselves into a 
committee to consider of the most expedient and 
necessary measure to guard against the encroach- 
ments which so glaringly threatened them ; and im- 
mediately adopted the following spirited associa- 
tion : — 

''^ An association, signed by 89 members of the late 
house of burgesses. We, his majesty's most dutiful 
and loyal subjects, the late representatives of the good 
people of this country, having been deprived, by the 
sudden interposition of the executive part of this gov- 
ernment, from giving our countrymen the advice we 
wished to convey to them, in a legislative capacity, 
find ourselves under the hard necessity of adopting 
this, the only method we have left, of pointing out to 
our countrymen such measures as, in our opinion, are 
best fitted to secure our dear rights and liberty from 
destruction, by the heavy hand of power now lifted 
against North America. With much grief we find, 
that our dutiful applications to Great Britain for the 
security of our just, ancient, and constitutional 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 99 

rights, have been not only disregarded, but that a 
determined system is formed and pressed, for reduc- 
ing the inhabitants of British America to slavery, by 
subjecting them to the payment of taxes imposed 
without the consent of the people or their representa- 
tives ; and that, in pursuit of this system, we find an 
act of the British parliament, lately passed, for stop- 
ping the harbor and commerce of the town of Boston, 
in our sister-colony of Massachusetts bay, until the 
people there submit to the payment of such unconsti- 
tutional taxes ; and which act most violently and arbi- 
trarily deprives them of their property, in wharves 
erected by private persons, at their own great and 
proper expense ; which act is, in our opinion, a most 
dangerous attempt to destroy the constitutional lib- 
erty and rights of all l^orth America. It is further our 
opinion, that as tea, on its importation into America, 
is charged with a duty imposed by parliament, for 
the purpose of raising a revenue without the consent 
of the people, it ought not to be used by any person 
who wishes well to the constitutional rights and lib- 
erties of British America. And whereas the India 
company have ungenerously attempted the ruin of 
America, by sending many ships loaded with tea into 
the colonies, thereby intending to fix a precedent in 
favor of arbitrary taxation, we deem it highly proper 
and do accordingly recommend it strongly to our 
countrymen, not to purchase or use any kind of East 
India commodity whatsoever, except saltpetre and 
spices, until the grievances of America are redressed. 
We are further clearly of opinion, that an attack 
made on one of our sister-colonies, to compel submis- 
sion to arbitrary taxes, is an attack made on all Brit- 



100 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ish America, and threatens ruin to tlie rights of all, 
unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied. 
And for this purpose it is recommended to the com- 
mittee of correspondence, that they communicate 
with their several corresponding committees, on the 
expediency of appointing deputies from the several 
colonies of British America, to meet in general con- 
gress, at such place, annually, as shall he thought 
most convenient ; there to deliberate on those general 
measures which the united interests of America may 
from time to time require. 

^^ A tender regard for the interest of our fellow- 
subjects, the merchants and manufacturers of Great 
Britain, prevents us from going further at this time ; 
most earnestly hoping that the unconstitutional prin- 
ciple of taxing the colonies without their consent will 
not be persisted in, thereby to compel us, against our 
will, to avoid all commercial intercourse with Brit- 
ain. Wishing them and our people free and happy, 
we are their affectionate friends, the late representa- 
tives of Virginia. 

" The 27th day of May, 1774.^' 

To give effect to the recommendation of a congress 
on the part of this colony, delegates were shortly after 
elected by the several counties, to meet in Williams- 
burg on the first of August following, to consider fur- 
ther of the state of public affairs, and, more particu- 
larly, to appoint deputies to the general congress, 
which was to be convened at Philadelphia, on the 
5th of September following. The clear, firm, and 
animated instructions given by the people of the sev- 
eral counties to their delegates, evince the thorough 
knowledge of the great parliamentary question which 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. lOl 

now pervaded the country, and the determined spirit 
of the colonists to resist the claim of British taxa- 
tion.^ 

* The following extracts are the Instructions from the 
county of Hanover: — 

To John Byrne and Patrick Henry, Jun., Esquires. 
Gentlemen, 

You have our thanks for your patriotic, faithful, and 
spirited conduct, in the part you acted in the late assembly, 
as our burgesses, and as we are greatly alarmed at the 
proceedings of the British parliament respecting the town 
of Boston, and the province of Massachusetts bay, and as 
we understand a meeting of delegates from all the coun- 
tries in this colony is appointed to be in Williamsburg on 
the first day of next month, to deliberate on our public 
affairs, we do hereby appoint you, gentlemen, our dele- 
gates; and we do request you, then and there, to meet, 
consult, and advise, touching matters as are most likely 
to effect our deliverance from the evils with which our 
country is threatened. . . . 

We read our intended doom in the Boston port bill, in 
that for altering the mode of trial in criminal cases, and, 
finally, in the bill for altering the form of government in 
the Massachusetts bay. These several acts are replete 
with injustice and oppression, and strongly expressive of 
the future policy of Britain toward all her colonies; if a 
full and uncontrolled operation is given to this detestable 
system in its earlier stages, it will probably be fixed upon 
us for ever. 

Let it, therefore, be your great object to obtain a speedy 
repeal of those acts: and for this purpose we recommend 
the adoption of such measures as may produce the hearty 
union of all our countrymen and sister-colonies. United 

WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. 

To obtain this wished-for union, we declare our readi- 
ness to sacrifice any lesser interest arising from a soil, 
climate, situation, or productions peculiar to us. . , , 



102 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

On the first of August, accordingly, the first con- 
vention of Virginia delegates assembled in Williams- 
burg ; and gave a new proof of the invincible energy 
by which they were actuated, in a series of resolu- 
tions, whereby they pledged themselves to make com- 
mon cause with the people of Boston in every extrem- 
ity ; and broke off all commercial connection with the 
mother country, until the grievances of which they 
complained should be redressed. By their last reso- 
lution they empowered their moderator, Mr. Peyton 
Randolph, or in case of his death, Robert C. Nicho- 
las, esquire, on any future occasion that might in his 
opinion require it, to convene the several delegates 
of the colony, at such time and place as he might 
judge proper. 

They then appointed as deputies to congress on the 
part of this colony, Messrs. Peyton Randolph, Rich- 
ard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, 
Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmimd 

The African trade for slaves we consider as most dan- 
gerous to the virtue and welfare of this country; we there- 
fore most earnestly wish to see it totally discouraged. . . 

While prudence and moderation shall guide your coun- 
cils, we trust, gentlemen, that firmness, resolution, and 
zeal, will animate you in the glorious struggle. The arm 
of power, which is now stretched forth against us, is in- 
deed formidable; but we do not despair. Our cause is 
good; and if it is served with constancy and fidelity, it 
cannot fail of success. We promise you our best support, 
and we will heartily join in such measures as a majority 
of our countrymen shall adopt for securing the public lib- 
erty. 

Resolved, That the above address be transmitted to 
the printers to be published in the gazettes. 

William Pollaed, Clerk. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 103 

Pendleton, and furnislied them with the following 
firm and spirited letter of instructions : — 

" Instructions for the Deputies appointed to meet in 
General Congress, on the part of the Colony, of Vir- 
ginia. 

'^ The unhappy disputes between Great Britain 
and her American colonies, which began about the 
third year of the reign of his present majesty, and 
since continually increasing, have proceeded to 
lengths so dangerous and alarming, as to excite just 
apprehensions in the minds of his majesty^s faithful 
subjects of the colony, that they are in danger of 
being deprived of their natural, ancient, constitu- 
tional, and chartered rights, have compelled them to 
take the same into their most serious consideration ; 
and being deprived of their usual and accustomed 
mode of making known their grievances, have ap- 
pointed us their representatives, to consider what is 
proper to be done in this dangerous crisis of Ameri- 
can affairs. It being our opinion that the united V\^is- 
dom of li^orth America should be collected in a gen- 
eral congress of all the colonies, we have appointed 
the Honorable Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry 
Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard 
Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, 
espuires, deputies to represent this colony in the said 
congi'ess, to be held at Philadelphia on the first Mon- 
day in September next. And that they may be the 
better informed of our settlements touching the con- 
duct we wish them to observe on this important occa- 
sion, we desire that they will express, in the first 



104 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

place, our faith and true allegiance to his majesty, 
King George the Third, our lawful and rightful sov- 
ereign ; and that we are determined, with our lives 
and fortunes, to support him in the legal exercise of 
all his just rights and prerogatives. And, however 
misrepresented, we sincerely approve of a constitu- 
tional connection with Great Britain, and wish most 
ardently a return of that intercourse of affection and 
commercial connection that formerly united both 
countries; which can only be effected by a removal of 
those causes of discontent which have of late unhap- 
pily divided us. 

" It cannot admit of a doubt, but that British sub- 
jects in America are entitled to the same rights and 
privileges as their fellow-subjects possess in Britain ; 
and, therefore, that the power assumed by the British 
parliament to bind America by their statutes, in all 
cases whatsoever, is unconstitutional, and the source 
of these unhappy differences. 

" The end of government would be defeated, by the 
British parliament exercising a power over the lives, 
the property, and the liberty of American subjects, 
who are not, and from their local circumstances can- 
not, be there represented. Of this nature we consider 
the several acts of parliament for raising a revenue 
in America, for extending the jurisdiction of the 
courts of admiralty, for seizing American subjects, 
and transporting them to Britain, to be tried for 
crimes committed in America, and the several late op- 
pressive acts respecting the town of Boston, and 
province of Massachusetts bay. 

" The original constitution of the American colon- 
ies, possessing their assemblies with the sole right of 



LIFE OF PATRICK HfiNRY. 105 

directing their internal polity, it is absolutely de- 
structive of the end of their institution, that their 
legislatures should be suspended, or prevented, by 
hasty dissolutions, from exercising their legislative 

powers. 

" Wanting the protection of Britain, we have long 
acquiesced in their acts of navigation, restrictive of 
our commerce, which we consider as an ample recom- 
pense for such protection; but as those acts derive 
their efficacy from that foundation alone, we have 
reason to expect they will be restrained, so as to pro- 
duce the reasonable purposes of Britain, and not be 
injurious to us. 

'' To obtain redress of these grievances, without 
which the people of America can neither be safe, free, 
nor happy, they are willing to undergo the great in- 
convenience that will be derived to them, from stop- 
ping all imports whatsoever from Great Britain, 
after the first day of jSTovember next, and also to cease 
exporting any commodity whatsoever to the same 
place, after the 10th day of August, 1775. The ear- 
nest desire we have to make as quick and full payment 
as possible of our debts to Great Britain, and to avoid 
the heavy injury that would arise to this country 
from an earlier adoption of the non-exportation plan, 
after the people have already applied so much of their 
labor to the perfecting of the present crop, by which 
means they have been prevented from pursuing other 
methods of clothing and supporting their families, 
have rendered it necessary to restrain you in this arti- 
cle of non-exportation ; but it is our desire that you 
cordially co-operate with our sister-colonies in gen- 
eral congress, in such other just and proper methods 



106 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

as they, or the majority shall deem necessary for the 
accomplishment of these valuable ends. 

" The proclamation issued by General Gage, in the 
government of the province of the Massachusetts bay, 
declaring it treason for the inhabitants of that prov- 
ince to assemble themselves to consider of their griev- 
ances, and form associations for their common con- 
duct on the occasion, and requiring the civil magis- 
trates and officers to apprehend all such persons to be 
tried for their supposed offences, is the most alarm- 
ing process that ever appeared in a British govern- 
ment; the said General Gage has thereby assumed 
and taken upon himself powers denied by the consti- 
tution to our legal sovereign ; he not having conde- 
scended to disclose by what authority he exercises 
such extensive and unheard-of powers, we are at a 
loss to determine whether he intends to justify him- 
self as the representative of the king, or as the com- 
mander-in-chief of his majesty's forces in America. 
If he considers himself as acting in the character of 
his majesty's representative, we would remind him 
that the statute 25th, Edward III., has expressed and 
defined all treasonable offences, and that the legisla- 
ture of Great Britain hath declared that no offence 
shall be construed to be treason, but such as is pointed 
out by that statute, and that this was done to take out 
of the hands of tyrannical kings, and of weak and 
Avicked ministers, that deadly weapon which construc- 
tive treason hath furnished them with, and which had 
drawn the blood of the best and honestest men in the 
kingdom ; and that the king of Great Britain hath no 
right by his proclamation to subject his people to im- 
prisonment, pains, and penalties. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 107 

" That if the said General Gage conceives he is 
empowered to act in this manner, as the commander- 
in-chief of his majesty's forces in America, this 
odious and illegal proclamation must be considered as 
a plain and full declaration that this despotic viceroy 
will be bound by no law, nor regard the constitutional 
rights of his majesty's subjects, whenever they in- 
terfere with the plan he has formed for oppressing 
the good people of Massachusetts bay ; and, therefore, 
that the executing, or attempting to execute, such 
proclamation, will justify resistance and reprisal." 

On the fourth of September, 1774, that venerable 
body, the old continental congress of the United 
States, (toward whom every American heart will bow 
with pious homage while the name of liberty shall be 
dear in our land,) met for the first time at Carpen- 
ter's Hall, in the city of Philadelphia. Peyton Ran- 
dolph, of Virginia, was chosen president, and the 
house was organized for business with all the solem- 
nities of a regular legislature. 

The most eminent men of the various colonies were 
now, for the first time, brought together. They were 
known to each other by fame ; but they were person- 
ally strangers. The meeting was awfully solemn. 
The object which had called them together was of in- 
calculable magnitude. The liberties of no less than 
three millions of people, with that of all their pos- 
terity, were staked on the wisdom and energy of their 
councils. No wonder, then, at the long and deep si- 
lence which is said to have followed upon their or- 
ganization ; at the anxiety with which the members 
looked around upon each other; and the reluctance 
which every individual felt to open a business so 



108 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

fearfully momentous. In tffe midst of this deep and 
deathlike silence, and just when it was beginning to 
become painfully embarrassing, Mr. Henry arose 
slowly, as if borne down with the weight of the sub- 
ject. After faltering, according to his habit, through 
a most impressive exordium, in which he merely 
echoed back the consciousness of every other heart, in 
deploring his inability to do justice to the occasion, 
he launched gradually into a recital of the colonial 
"wrongs. Rising, as he advanced, with the grandeur 
of his subject, and glowing at length with all the 
majesty and expectation of the occasion, his speech 
seemed more than that of mortal man. Even those 
who had heard him in all his glory, in the house of 
burgesses of Virginia, were astonished at the manner 
in which his talents seemed to swell and expand them- 
selves, to fill the vaster theatre in which he was now 
placed. There was no rant, no rhapsody, no labor of 
the understanding, no straining of the voice, no con- 
fusion of the utterance. His countenance was erect, 
his eye steady, his action noble, his enunciation clear 
and firm, his mind poised on its centre, his views of 
his subject comprehensive and great, and his imagina- 
tion coruscating with a magnificence and a variety, 
which struck even that assembly with amazement and 
awe. He sat down amidst murmurs of astonishment 
and applause ; and as he had been before proclaimed 
the greatest orator of Virginia, he was now, on every 
hand, admitted to be the first orator of America. 

He was followed by Mr. Richard Henry Lee, who 
charmed the house with a different kind of eloquence 
— chaste, classical, beautiful — his polished periods 
rolling along without effort, filling the ear with the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 109 

most bewitching harmony and delighting the mind 
with the most exquisite imagery. The cultivated 
graces of Mr. Lee's rhetoric received and at the same 
time reflected beauty, by their contrast with the wild 
and grand effusions of Mr. Henry. Two models of 
eloquence, each so perfect in its kind, and so finely 
contrasted, could not but fill the house with the high- 
est admiration; and as Mr. Henry had before been 
pronounced the Demosthenes, it was conceded on 
every hand, that Mr. Lee was the Cicero, of America. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION AND HENKY^'s GEEAT 

SPEECH. 

1775. 

It is due, however, to historic truth to record that 
the superior powers of these great men were mani- 
fested only in debate. On the floor of the house, and 
during the first days of the session, while general 
grievances were the topic, they took the undisputed 
lead in the assembly, and were confessedly, primi 
inter pares. But when called from the exercise of 
oratory to that severer test of intellectual excellence, 
the details of business, they found themselves in a 
body of cool-headed, reflecting, and able men, by 
whom they were, in their turn, completely thrown 
into the shade.. 

A petition to the king, an address to the people of 
Great Britain, and a memorial to the people of Brit- 
ish America, were agreed to be drawn. Mr. Lee, Mr. 
Henry, and others, were appointed for the first; Mr. 
Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Jay, for the two last 
The splendor of their debut occasioned Mr. Henry to 
be designated by his committee, to draw the petition 
to the king, with which they 'were charged; and Mr. 
Lee was charged with the address to the people of 

XIO 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. HI 

England. The last was first reported. On reading 
it, great disappointment was expressed in every coun- 
tenance and a dead silence ensued for some minutes. 
At length, it was laid on the table, for perusal and 
consideration, till the next day : when first one mem- 
ber and then another arose, and paying some faint 
compliment to the composition, observed that there 
were still certain considerations not expressed, which 
should properly find a place in it. The address was, 
therefore, committed for amendment; and one pre- 
pared by Mr. Jay, and offered by Governor Living- 
ston, was reported and adopted, with scarcely an al- 
teration. Mr. Henry^s draught of a petition to the 
king was equally unsuccessful, and was recommitted 
for amendment. Mr. John Dickinson (the author of 
the Farmer's Letters) was added to the committee, 
and a new draught, prepared by him, was adopted. 

It is a trite remark, that eminent talents for speak- 
ing and for writing are very rarely found united in 
the same individual. For Mr. Henry and for the 
world, it happened unfortunately, that the years of 
his youth had been wasted in idleness. He had be- 
come celebrated as an orator before he had learned to 
compose ; and it is not therefore wonderful, that when 
withdrawn from the kindling presence of the crowd, 
he was called upon for the first time to take the pen, 
all the spirit and flame of his genius were extin- 
guished. 

But to resume our narrative : congress arose in Oc- 
tober, and Mr. Henry returned to his native county. 
Here, as was natural, he was surrounded by his neigh- 
bors, who were eager to hear not only what had been 
done, but what kind of men had composed that illus- 



112 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

trious body. He answered their inquiries with all 
his wonted kindness and candor; and having been 
asked by one of them, '^ whom he thought the great- 
ets man in congress/' he replied : " If you speak of 
eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is by 
far the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid in- 
formation and sound judgment, Colonel Washington 
is, unquestionably, the greatest man on that floor." 

On Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the conven- 
tion of delegates, from the several counties and cor- 
porations of Virginia, met for the second time. This 
assembly was held in the old church in the town of 
Richmond. Mr. Henry was a member of that body 
also. The reader will bear in mind the tone of the 
instructions given by the convention of the preceding 
year to their deputies in congress. He will remem- 
ber that, while tliey recite with great feeling the 
series of grievances under which the colonies had la- 
bored, and insist with firmness on their constitutional 
rights, they give, nevertheless, the most explicit and 
solemn pledge of their faith and true allegiance to his 
majesty King George III., and avow their determina- 
tion to support him with their lives and fortunes, in 
the legal exercise of all his just rights and preroga- 
tives. He will remember, that these instructions con- 
tain also, an expression of their sincere approbation 
of a connection with Great Britain, and their ardent 
wishes for a return of that friendly intercourse from, 
which this country had derived so much prosperity 
and happiness. These sentiments still influenced 
many of the leading members of the convention of 
1775. They could not part with the fond hope that 
those peaceful days would again return which had 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 113 

shed so much light and warmth over the land; and 
the report of the king's gracious reception of the pe- 
tition from congress tended to cherish and foster that 
hope, and to render them averse to any means of vio- 
lence. But Mr. Henry saw things with a steadier 
eye and a deeper insight. His judgment was too solid 
to be duped by appearances; and his heart too firm 
and manly to be amused by false and flattering hopes. 
He had long since read the true character of the 
British court, and saw that no alternative remained 
for his country but abject submission or heroic resis- 
tance. It was not for a soul like Henry's to hesitate 
between these courses. He had offered upon the altar 
of liberty no divided heart. The gulf of war which 
yawned before him was indeed fiery and fearful ; but 
he saw that the awful plunge was inevitable. The 
body of the convention, however, hesitated. They 
cast around " a longing, lingering look " on those 
flowery fields on which peace, and ease, and joy, were 
still sporting ; and it required all the energies of a 
Mentor like Henry to push them from the precipice, 
and conduct them over the stormy sea of the revolu- 
tion, to liberty and glory. 

The convention being formed and organized tor 
business, proceeded, in the first place, to express their 
unqualified approbation of the measures of congress, 
and to declare that they considered '' this whole con- 
tinent as under the highest obligations to that resi^ec- 
table body, for the wisdom of their counsels, and 
their unremitted endeavors to maintain and preserve 
inviolate the just rights and liberties of his majesty's 
dutiful and loyal subjects in America." 

They next resolve, that " the warmest thanks of 



134 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the convention, and of M the inhabitants of this 
colony, were due and that this tribute of applause be 
presented to the worthy delegates, deputed by a for- 
mer convention to represent this colony in general 
congress, for their cheerful undertaking and faithful 
discharge of the very important trust reposed in 
them.'^ 

The morning of the 23d of March was opened, by 
reading a petition and memorial from the assembly 
of Jamaica, to the king's most excellent majesty: 
whereupon it was — ^'Resolved, That the unfeigned 
thanks and most grateful acknowledgments of the 
convention be presented to that very respectable as- 
sembly, for the exceeding generous and affectionate 
part they have so nobly taken, in the unhappy con- 
test between Great Britain and her colonies ; and for 
their truly patriotic endeavors to fix the just claims 
of the colonists upon the most permanent constitu- 
tional principles : — that the assembly be assured, that 
it is the most ardent wish of this colony, [and they 
were persuaded of the whole continent of I^orth 
America,] to see a speedy return of those halcyon 
days, when we lived a free and happy people.'^ 

These proceedings were not adapted to the taste 
of Mr. Henry ; on the contrary, they were " gall and 
wormwood '' to him. The house required to be 
wrought up to a bolder tone. He rose, therefore, and 
moved the following manly resolutions : — 

" Resolved, That a well-regulated militia, com- 
posed of gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural 
strength and only security of a free government ; that 
such a militia in this colony would for ever render it 
unnecessary for the mother-country to keep among 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 116 

us, for the purpose of our defence, any standing army 
of mercenary soldiers, always subversive of the quiet 
and dangerous to the liberties of the people, and 
would obviate the pretext of taxing us for their sup- 

" That the establishment of such militia is, at this 
time, peculiarly necessary, by the state of our laws, 
for the protection and defence of the country, some 
of which are already expired, and others will shortly 
be so- and that the known remissness of government 
in calling us together in legislative capacity, renders 
it too insecure, in this time of danger and distress, 
to rely that opportunity will be given of renewing 
them in general assembly, or making any provision 
to secure our inestimable rights and liberties, from 
those further violations with which they are threat- 

" Eesolved, therefore. That this colony he imme- 
diately put into a state of defence, and that _ 

he a committee to prepare a plan for im- 
hodying, arming, and disciplining such a number of 
men, as may he sufficient for that purpose. 

The alarm which such a proposition must have 
given to those who had contemplated no resistance of 
a character more serious than petition, non-importa- 
tion, and passive fortitude, and who still hung with 
suppliant tenderness on the skirts of Britain will be 
readily conceived by the reflecting reader. The shock 
was painful. It was almost general. The resolu- 
tions were opposed as not only rash in policy, but as 
harsh and well nigh impious in point of feeling. 
Some of the warmest patriots of the convention op- 
posed them. Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, 



lie LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

and Edmund Pendleton, w!ro had so lately drunk of 
the fountain of patriotism in the continental con- 
gress, and Eobert C. Nicholas, one of the best as well 
as ablest men and patriots in the state, resisted them 
with all their influence and abilities. 

They urged the late gracious reception of the con- 
gressional petition by the throne. They insisted that 
national comity, and much more filial respect, de- 
manded the exercise of a more dignified patience. 
That the sympathies of the parent-country were now 
on our side. That the friends of American liberty in 
jjarliament were still with us, and had, as yet, had 
no cause to blush for our indiscretion. That the 
manufacturing interests of Great Britain, already 
smarting under the effects of our non-importation, 
co-operated powerfully toward our relief. That the 
sovereign himself had relented, and showed that he 
looked upon our sufferings with an eye of pity. 
'^ Was this a moment," they asked, " to disgust our 
friends, to extinguish all the conspiring sympathies 
which were working in our favor, to turn their 
friendship into hatred, their pity into revenge ? And 
what was there, they asked, in the situation of the 
colony, to tempt us to this? Were we a great mili- 
tary people ? Were we ready for war % Where were 
our stores, where were our arms, where our soldiers, 
where our generals, where our money, the sinews of 
war ? They were nowhere to be found. In truth, we 
were poor, we were naked, we were defenceless. And 
yet we taJk of assuming the front of war ! of assum- 
ing it, too, against a nation, one of the most formida- 
ble in the Avorld ! A nation ready and armed at all 
points ! Her navies riding triumphant in every sea ; 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 117 

her armies never marching but to certain victory! 
What was to be the issue of the struggle we were 
called upon to court ? What could be the issue, in 
the comparative circumstances of the two countries, 
but to yield up this country an easy prey to Great 
Britain, and to convert the illegitimate right which 
the British parliament now claimed, into a firm and 
indubitable right, by conquest ? The measure might 
be brave ; but it was the bravery of madmen. It had 
no pretension to the character of prudence, and as 
little to the grace of genuine courage. It would be 
time enough to resort to measures of despair, when 
every well founded hope had entirely vanished." 

To this strong view of the subject, supported as it 
was by the stubborn fact of the well-known helpless 
condition of the colony, the opponents of those resolu- 
tions superadded every topic of persuasion which be- 
longed to the cause. 

" The strength and lustre which we have derived 
from our connection with Great Britain, the domestic 
comforts which we had drawn from the same source, 
and whose value we were now able to estimate by 
their loss, that ray of reconciliation which was dawn- 
ing upon us from the east, and which promised so fair 
and happy a day, with this they contrasted the clouds 
and storms which the measure now proposed was so 
well calculated to raise, and in which we should not 
have even the poor consolation of being pitied by the 
world, since we should have so needlessly and rashly 
drawn them upon ourselves." 

These arguments and topics of persuasion were so 
well justified by the appearance of things, and were 
moreover so entirely in unison with that love of ease 



118 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

and quiet which is natur^to man, and that disposi- 
tion to hope for happier times, even under the most 
forbidding circumstances, that an ordinary man, in 
Mr. Henry's situation, would have been glad to com- 
pound with the displeasure of the house, by being 
permitted to withdraw his resolutions in silence. 

Not so Mr. Henry. His was a spirit fitted to raise 
the whirlwind, as well as to ride in and direct it. 
His was that comprehensive view, that unerring pres- 
cience, that perfect command over the actions of men, 
which qualified him not merely to guide, but almost 
to create the destinies of nations. 

He rose at this time with a majesty unusual to him 
in an exordium, and with all that self-possession by 
which he was so invariably distinguished. ^' No 
man," he said, ' thought more highly than he did of 
the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy 
gentlemen who had just addressed the house. But 
different men often saw the same subject in different 
lights ; and, therefore, he hoped it would not bo 
thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, enter- 
taining as he did, opinions of a character very oppo- 
site to theirs, he should speak forth his sentiments 
freely, and without reserve. This,'' he said, '^ was 
no time for ceremony. The question before this 
house was one of awful moment to the country. For 
his own part, he considered it as nothing less than a 
question of freedom or slavery. And in proportion 
to the magnitude of the subject, ought to be the free- 
dom of the debate. It was only in this way that they 
could hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great re- 
sponsibility which they held to God and their coun- 
try. Should he keep back his opinions at such a 




Patrick Henry delivering his speech against tyranny before the Virginia con- 
vention, March 23, 1775.— Page 118. Life of Patrick Henry. 



J\ 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 119 

time, througli fear of giving offence, he should con- 
sider himself as guilty of treason toward his coun- 
try, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty 
of heaven, which he revered ahove all earthly kings. 
" Mr. President," said he, " it is natural to man 
to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to 
shut our eyes against a painful truth — and listen to 
the song of that siren, till she transforms us into 
beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a 
great and arduous strugle for liberty? Were we 
disposed to be of the number of those, who haying 
eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things 
which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? 
For his part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, 
he was willing to know the whole truth ; to know the 
worst, and to provide for it. 

" He had,'' he said, " but one lamp by which his 
feet were guided ; and that was the lamp of exper- 
ience. He knew of no way of judging of the future 
but by the past. And judging by the past, he wished 
to know what there had been in the conduct of the 
British ministry for the last ten years, to justify 
those hopes with which gentlemen had been pleased 
to solace themselves and the house? Is it that in- 
sidious smile with Avhich our petition has been lately 
received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to 
your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with 
a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception 
of our petition comports with those warlike prepara- 
tions which cover our waters and darken our land. 
Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and 
reconciliation ? Have we shown ourselves so unwill- 
ing to be reconciled, that force must be called in to 



120 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. 
These are the implements of war and subjugation — • 
the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gen- 
tlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its pur- 
pose be not to force us to submission ? Can gentle- 
men assign any other possible motive for it ? Has 
Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, 
to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? 
'No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us : they 
can be meant for no other. They are sent over to 
bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British 
ministry have been so long forging. 

" And what have we to oppose to them ? Shall we 
try argument ? Sir, we have been trying that for the 
last ten years. Have we any thing new to offer upon 
the subject ? ^NTothing. We have held the subject up 
in every light of which it is capable ; but it has been 
all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble 
supplication ? What terms shall we find, which have 
not been already exhausted ? Let us not, I beseech 
you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done 
every thing that could be done, to avert the storm 
which is now coming on. We have petitioned, we 
have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we have 
prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have im- 
plored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands 
of the ministry and parliament. Our petitions have 
been slighted; our remonstrances have produced ad- 
ditional violence and insult; our supplications have 
been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with 
contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after 
these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace 
and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 121 

lope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve 
inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we 
have been so long contending, if we mean not basely 
to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been 
so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves 
never to abandon, until the glorious object of our 
contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, 
sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God 
of hosts, is all that is left us ! " 

" They tell us, sir," continued Mr. Henry, " that 
we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an 
adversary. But when shall we be stronger ? Will it 
be the next week or the next year ? Will it be when 
we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard 
shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather 
strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we ac- 
quire'' the means of effectual resistance by lying su- 
pinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phan- 
tom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us 
hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a 
proper use of those means which the God of nature 
hath placed in our power. Three millions of people 

* " Imagine to yourself," says Judge Tucker, " this sen- 
tence delivered with all the calm dignity of Cato, of Utica 
—imagine to yourself the Roman senate, assembled in the 
capitol, when it was entered by the profane Gauls, who, at 
first, were awed by their presence, as if they had entered 
an assembly of the gods!— imagine that you heard that 
Cato addressing such a senate— imagine that you saw the 
handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's palace— imagine 
you heard a voice as from heaven uttering the words ' We 
must ftgu: as the doom of fate, and you may have some 
idea of the speaker, the assembly to whom he addressed 
himself, and the auditory, of which I was one." 



122 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a 
country as that which we possess, are invincible by 
any force which our enemy can send against us. Be- 
sides, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a 
just God who presides over the destinies of nations, 
and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for 
us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone ; it is 
to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, 
we have no election. If we were base enough to de- 
sire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. 
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery ! 
Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard 
on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable — and 
let it come ! ! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! ! ! 

"It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentle- 
men may cry, peace, peace — but there is no peace. 
The war is actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps 
from the north will bring to our ears the clash of re- 
sounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the 
field ! Why stand we here idle ? Wliat is it that gen- 
tlemen wish ? What would they have ? Is life so 
dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price 
of chains and slavery ? Forbid it. Almighty God ! — 
I know not what course others may take ; but as for 
me," cried he, with both his arms extended aloft, his 
brows knit, every feature marked with the resolute 
purpose of his soul, and his voice swelled to its bold- 
est note of exclamation — " give me liberty, or give 
me death ! " 

He took his seat. "No murmur of applause was 
heard. The effect was too deep. After the trance 
of a moment, several members started from their 
seats. The cry, " to arms ! " seemed to quiver on 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 123 

every lip, and gleam from every eye. Kichard H. 
Lee arose and supported Mr. Henry, with his usual 
spirit and elegance. But his melody was lost amid 
the agitations of that ocean, which the master-spirit 
of the storm had lifted up on high. That supernat- 
ural voice still sounded in their ears, and shivered 
along their arteries. They heard, in every pause, the 
cry of liberty or death. They became impatient of 
speech — their souls were on fire for action.* 

* Mr. Randolph, in his manuscript history, has given 
a most eloquent and impressive account of this debate. 
Since these sheets were prepared for the press, and at 
the moment of their departure from the hands of the 
author, he has received from Chief Justice Marshall, a 
note in relation to the same debate, which he thinks too 
interesting to suppress. It is the substance of a statement 
made to the chief justice (then an ardent youth, feeling 
a most enthusiastic admiration of eloquence, and panting 
for war) by his father, who was a member of this con- 
vention, Mr. Marshall, (the father), after speaking of 
Mr. Henry's speech, " as one of the most bold, vehement, 
and animated pieces of eloquence that had ever been de- 
livered," proceeded to state, that " he was followed by 
Mr. Richard H. Lee, who took a most interesting view of 
our real situation. He stated the force which Britain could 
probably bring to bear upon us, and reviewed our resources 
and means of resistance. He stated the advantages and 
disadvantages of both parties, and drew from this state- 
ment auspicious inferences. But he concluded with say- 
ing, admitting the probable calculations to be against us, 
we are assured in holy writ that * the race is not to the 
swift, nor the battle to the strong; and if the language 
of genius may be added to inspiration, I will say with our 
immortal bard: — 

* Thrice is he armed, who hath his quarrel just! 
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel. 
Whose conscience with injustice is oppress'dj ' " 



124: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

The resolutions were adopted ; and Patrick Henry, 
Kichard H. Lee, Robert C. Nicholas, Benjamin Har- 
rison, Lemuel Riddick, George Washington, Adam 
Stevens, Andrew Lewis, William Christian, Edmund 
Pendleton, Thomas Jefferson, and Isaac Zane, es- 
quires, were appointed a committee to prepare the 
plan called for by the last resolution. 

The constitution of this committee proves, that in 
those days of genuine patriotism there existed a mu- 
tual and noble confidence, which deemed the op- 
ponents of a measure no less worthy than its friends 
to assist in its execution. Thomas Jefferson, Avho 
bore himself a most distinguished part in our revolu- 
tion, in speaking of the gentlemen whom I have just 
named, as having opposed Mr. Henry's resolutions, 
and of Mr. Wythe who acted with them, says: 
" These were honest and able men, who had begun the 
opposition on the same grounds, but with a modera- 
tion more adapted to their age and experience. Sub- 
sequent events favored the bolder spirits of Henry, 
the Lees, Pages, Mason, &c., with whom I went in all 
points. Sensible, however, of the importance of 
unanimity among our constituents, although we often 
wished to have gone on faster, we slackened our pace, 
that our less ardent colleagues might keep up with 
us; and they, on their part, differing nothing from 
us in principle, quickened their gait somewhat be- 
yond that which their prudence might, of itself, have 
advised, and thus consolidated the phalnax which 
breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony of 
the bold with the cautious, we advanced, with our 
constituents, in undivided mass, and with fewer ex- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 125 

amples of separation than perhaps existed in any 
other part of the union." 

The plan for embodying, arming, and disciplining 
the militia, proposed by the committee which has just 
been mentioned, was received and adopted, and is in 
the following terms : — 

" The committee propose that it be strongly rec- 
ommended to the colony, diligently to put in execu- 
tion the militia law passed in the j^ear 1738, entitled, 
' An act for the better regulating of the militia,' 
which has become in force by the expiration of all 
subsequent militia laws. 

" The committee are further of opinion, that as, 
from the expiration of the above mentioned laws, and 
various other causes, the legal and necessary disci- 
plining the militia has been much neglected, and a 
proper provision of arms and ammunition has not 
been made, to the evident danger of the community, 
in case of invasion or insurrection ; that it be recom- 
mended to the inhabitants of the several counties of 
this colony, that they form one or more volunteer 
companies of infantry and troops of horse in each 
county, and to be in constant training and readiness 
to act on any emergency. 

" That it be recommended particularly to the coun- 
ties of Brunswick, Dinwiddle, Chesterfield, Henrico, 
Hanover, Spotsylvania, King George, and Stafford, 
and to all counties below these, that, out of such of 
their volunteers, they form, each of them, one or more 
troops of horse ; and to all the counties above these, 
it is recommended that they pay a more particular at- 
tention to forming a good infantry. 

" That each company of infantry consist of sixty- 



126 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

eight, rank and file, to be commanded by one captain, 
two lieutenants, one ensign, four sergeants, and four 
corporals ; and that they have a drummer, and be fur- 
nished Avith a drum and colors; that every man be 
provided with a good rifle, if to be had, or otherwise 
with a common firelock, bayonet, and cartouch-bpx, 
and also with a tomahawk, one pound of gunpowder, 
and four pounds of ball at least, fitted to the bore of 
his gun, that he be clothed in a hunting-shirt, by way 
of uniform ; and that he use all endeavor, as soon as 
possible, to become acquainted with the military exer- 
cise for infantry, appointed to be used by his majesty 
in the year 1764. 

" That each troop of horse consist of thirty, exclu- 
sive of officers ; that every horseman be provided with 
a good horse, bridle, saddle, with pistols and holsters, 
a carbine or other short firelock, with a bucket, a 
cutting-sword or tomahawk, one pound of gunpowder, 
and four pounds of ball, at least ; and use the utmost 
diligence in training and accustoming his horse to 
stand the discharge of firearms, and in making him- 
self acquainted with the military exercise for cavalry. 

" That in order to make a further and more ample 
provision of ammunition, it be recommended to the 
committees of the several counties, that they collect 
from their constituents in such manner as shall be 
most agreeable to them, so much money as will be 
sufficient to purchase half a pound of gunpowder, one 
pound of lead, necessary flints and cartridge paper, 
for every titheable person in their county ; that they 
immediately take effectual measures for the procur- 
ing such gunpowder, lead, flints, and cartridge-paper, 
and dispose thereof, when procured, in such place or 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 137 

places of safety as they may think best : and it is ear- 
nestly recommended to each individual to pay such 
proportion of the money necessary for these purposes, 
as by the respective committees shall be judged re- 
quisite. 

" That as it may happen that some counties, from 
their situation, may not be apprized of the most cer- 
tain and speedy method of procuring the articles be- 
fore-mentioned, one general committee should be ap- 
pointed, whose business it should be, to procure for 
such counties as may make application to them, such 
articles, and so much thereof, as the moneys where- 
with they shall furnish the said committee will pur- 
chase, after deducting the charges of transportation, 
and other necessary expenses." 

At the same session of the convention, I find that 
the alert and inquiring spirit of Mr. Henry laid hold 
of another instance of royal misrule. Governor Dun- 
more, it seems, by a recent proclamation, had de- 
clared, that his majesty had given orders for all va- 
cant lands within this colony to be put up in lots at 
public sale ; and that the highest bidder for such lots 
should be the purchaser thereof, and should hold the 
same, subject to a reservation of one halfpenny per 
acre, by way of annual quitrent, and of all mines of 
gold, silver, and precious stones. These terms were 
deemed an innovation on the established usage of 
granting lands in this colony ; and this sagacious poli- 
tician saw in the proceeding, not only an usurpation 
of power, but a great subduction of the natural wealth 
of the colony, and the creation, moreover, of a sepa- 
rate band of tenants and retainers, devoted to the 
vilest measures of the crowm. With a view, there- 



128 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

fore, to defeat this measure, he moved the following 
resolution, which was adopted : — 

" Kesolved, That a committee be appointed to in- 
quire whether his majesty may of right advance the 
terms of granting lands in this colony, and make 
report thereof to the next general assembly or con- 
vention ; and that in the meantime it be recommended 
to all persons whatever, to forbear purchasing or ac- 
cepting lands on the conditions before mentioned." 
Of this committee he was of course the chairman; 
and the other members were Richard Bland, Thomas 
Jefferson, Robert C. Nicholas, and Edmund Pendle- 
ton, esquires. 

The convention having adopted a plan for the en- 
couragement of arts and manufactures in this col- 
ony, and reappointed their former deputies to the 
continental congress, with the substitution of Mr. Jef- 
ferson for Mr. Peyton Randolph, in case of the non- 
attendance of the latter : * and having also provided 
for a re-election of delegates to the next convention 
came to an adjournment. f 

* He v/as speaker of the house of burgesses, a call of 
which was expected, and did accordingly take place. 

t It is curious to read in the file of papers from which 
the foregoing proceedings are extracted, and immediately 
following them this proclamation of his Excellency Lord 
Dunmore: — 

" Whereas certain persons, styling themselves delegates 
of several of his majesty's colonies in America, have pre- 
sumed, without his majesty's authority or consent, to as- 
semble together at Philadelphia, in the months of Sep- 
tember and October last, and have thought fit, among 
other unwarrantable proceedings, to resolve that it will 
be necessary that another congress should be held at the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 129 

same place on the 10th of May next, unless redress of cer- 
tain pretended grievances be obtained before that time: 
and to recommend that all the colonies of North America 
should choose deputies to attend such congress: / am 
commanded by the king, and I do accordingly issue this 
my proclamation, to require all magistrates and other 
officers to use their utmost endeavors to prevent any such 
appointment of deputies, and to exhort all persons what- 
ever within this government, to desist from such an unjus- 
tifiable proceeding, so highly displeasing to his majesty." 

This proclamation was published while the convention 
was in session, and was obviously designed to have an 
effect on their proceedings. It passed by them, however, 
" as the idle wind which they regarded not." The age 
of proclamation was gone, and the glory of regal gover- 
nors pretty nearly extinguished for ever. 

It ought not to be omitted, however, that this very 
convention passed resolutions complimentary to Lord Dun- 
more, and the troops which he had commanded in an 
expedition of the preceding year against the Indians: a 
compliment which, as we shall see, was afterward found 
to be unmerited. As the resolution in regard to Lord Dun- 
more does honor to the candor of the convention, and 
shows also how little personality there was in the contest, 
I take leave to subjoin it: — 

" Resolved, unanimously. That the most cordial thanks 
of the people of this colony are a tribute, justly due to our 
worthy governor. Lord Dunmore, for his truly noble, wise, 
and spirited conduct, on the late expedition against our 
Indian enemy — a conduct which at once evinces his excel- 
lency's attention to the true interests of this colony, and a 
zeal in the executive department which no dangers can 
divert, or difficulties hinder, from achieving the most im- 
portant services to the people who have the happiness to 
live under his administration." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FIKST UPRISING IN VIRGINIA. 

1775. 

The storm of the revolution now began to thicken. 
The cloud of war had actually burst on the 'New En- 
gland states while as yet the middle and southern 
colonies were in comparative repose. The calm, how- 
ever, was deceitful, and of short duration ; and, as 
far as Virginia was concerned, had been occasioned 
rather by the absence of Governor Dunmore on an 
Indian expedition, than any disposition on his part 
to favor the colony. His return to Williamsburg was 
the signal for violence. 

It seems to have been a matter of concert among 
the colonial governors, if indeed the policy was not 
dictated by the British court, to disarm the people of 
all the colonies at one and the same time, and thus 
incapacitate them for united resistance. 

To give effect to this measure, the export of powder 
from Great Britain was prohibited ; and an attempt 
was generally made about the same period to seize the 
powder and arms in the several provincial magazines. 
Gage, the successor of Hutchinson in the government 
of Massachusetts, set the example, by a seizure of 
the ammunition and military stores at Cambridge, 

130 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 131 

and the powder in the magazines at Charlestown, and 
other places. His example was followed by similar 
attempts in other colonies to the north. And on 
Thursday, the 20th of April, 17Y5, Captain Henry 
Collins, of the armed schooner Magdalen, then lying 
at Burwell's ferry, on James river, came up at the 
head of a body of marines and, acting under the 
orders of Lord Dunmore, entered the city of Wil- 
liamsburg in the dead of the night, and carried off 
from the public magazine about twenty barrels of 
pow^der, which he placed on board his schooner before 
the break of day. Clandestine as the movement had 
been, the alarm was given to the inhabitants early on 
the next morning. Their exasperation may be easily 
conceived. The town was in tumult. A considerable 
body of them flew to arms, with the determination to 
compel Capt. Collins to restore the powder. With 
much difficulty, however, they were restrained by the 
graver inhabitants of the town, and by the members 
of the common council, who assured them that proper 
measures should be immediately used to produce a 
restoration of the powder, without the effusion of 
human blood. The council, therefore, met in their 
corporate character, and addressed the following let- 
ter to Governor Dunmore: — 



' To his Excellency the Eight Hon. John, Earl of 
Dunmore, his majesty's lieutenant, governor-gen- 
eral, and commander-in-chief of the colony and 
dominion of Virginia: — The humble address of 
the mayor, recorder, aldermen and common coun- 
cil of the city of Williamsburg: — 
"My Lord — We, his majesty's dutiful and loyal 



132 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

subjects, the mayor, recorder, aldermen and common 
council of the city of Williamsburg, in common hall 
assembled, humbly beg leave to represent to your ex- 
cellency, that the inhabitants of this city were this 
morning exceedingly alarmed by a report that a large 
quantity of gunpowder was, in the preceding night, 
while they were sleeping in their beds, removed from 
the public magazine in this city, and conveyed, under 
an escort of marines, on board one of his majesty's 
armed vessels lying at a ferry on James river. 

^^ We beg leave to represent to your excellency, 
that, as the magazine was erected at the public ex- 
pense of this colony, and appropriated to the safe- 
keeping of such munition as should be there lodged, 
from time to time, for the protection and security of 
the country, by arming thereout such of the militia 
as might be necessary in cases of invasions and in- 
surrections, they humbly conceive it to be the only 
proper repository to be resorted to in times of immi- 
nent danger. 

" We further beg leave to inform your excellency, 
that from various reports at present prevailing in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, we have too much reason 
to believe that some wicked and designing persons 
have instilled the most diabolical notions into the 
minds of our slaves; and that, therefore, the utmost 
attention to our internal security is become the more 
necessary. 

^^ The circumstances of this city, my lord, we con- 
sider as peculiar and critical. The inhabitants, from 
the situation of the magazine in the midst of their 
city, have for a long tract of time, been exposed to 
all those dangers which have happened in many coun- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 133 

tries from explosions, and other accidents. They 
have, from time to time, thought it incumbent on 
them to guard the magazine. For their security they 
have, for some time past, judged it necessary to keep 
strong patrols on foot ; in their present circumstances, 
then, to have the chief and necessary means of their 
defence removed, cannot but be extremely alarming. 

" Considering ourselves as guardians of the city, 
we therefore humbly desire to be informed by your 
excellency, upon what motives, and for what partic- 
ular purpose, the powder has been carried off in such 
a manner; and we earnestly entreat your excellency 
to order it to be immediately returned to the maga- 
zine." 

To which his excellency returned this verbal an- 
swer : — 

" That hearing of an insurrection in a neighboring 
county, he had removed the powder from the maga- 
zine, where he did not think it secure, to a place of 
perfect security ; and that, upon his word and honor, 
whenever it was wanted on any insurrection, it 
should be delivered in half an hour; that he had re- 
moved it in the night-time, to prevent any alarm, and 
that Captain Collins had his express commands for 
the part he had acted; he was surprised to hear the 
people were under arms on this occasion, and that he 
should not think it prudent to put powder into their 
hands in such a situation." 

This conditional promise of the return of the 
X)owder, supported by the influence of Mr. Peyton 
Randolph, Mr. Robert C. Nicholas, and other charac- 
ters of weight, had the effect, it seems, of quieting the 
inhabitants for that day. On the succeeding night, 



134 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

however, a new alarm took place, on a report tliat a 
number of armed men had again landed from the 
Magdalen, about four miles below the city, with a 
view, it was presumed, of making another visit of 
nocturnal plunder. The inhabitants again flew to 
arms; but, on the interposition of the same eminent 
citizens, the ferment was allayed, and nothing more 
was done than to strengthen the usual patrol for the 
defence of the city. On the next day, Saturday, the 
22d of April, when every thing was perfectly quiet. 
Lord Dunmore, with rather more heat than discre- 
tion, sent a message into the city, by one of the magis- 
trates, and which his lordship had delivered with the 
most solemn asseverations, that if an}^ insult were 
offered to Capt. Foy, (a British captain residing at 
the palace, as his secretary, and considered to be the 
instigator of the governor to his violences,) or to 
Capt. Collins, lie tuould declare freedom, to the slaves, 
and lay the toivn m ashes; and he added, that he 
could easily depopulate the whole country. At this 
time, both Capt. Foy and Collins were and had been 
continually walking the streets, at their pleasure, 
without the slightest indication of disrespect. The 
effect of a threat, so diabolically ferocious, directed 
towards the people who had ever shown him, and his 
family such enthusiastic marks of respect and at- 
tention, and following so directly the plunder of the 
magazine, will be readily conceived. Yet it broke 
not out into any open act. His lordship remained un- 
molested even by a disrespectful look. The aug- 
mented patrol was kept up; but no defensive prepara- 
tion was made by the inhabitants of the city. 

The transactions which were passing in the metrop- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 135 

olis circulated through the country with a rapidity 
proportioned to their interest, and with this further 
aggravation, which was also true in point of fact, that 
in addition to the clandestine removal of the powder, 
the governor had caused the muskets in the magazine 
to be stripped of their locks. 

In the midst of the irritation excited by this intel- 
ligence, came the news of the bloody battles of Lex- 
ington and Concord, resulting from an attempt of 
the governor-general Gage, to seize the military stores 
deposited at the latter place. The system of colonial 
subjugation was now apparent : the effect was in- 
stantaneous. The whole country flew to arms. The 
independent companies, formed in happier times for 
the purpose of military discipline, and under the 
immediate auspices of Lord Dunmore himself, raised 
the standard of liberty in every county. By the 27th 
of April, there were assembled at Fredericksburg up- 
wards of seven hundred men well-armed and disci- 
plined, " friends of constitutional liberty and Amer- 
ica. '' Their march, however, was arrested by a let- 
ter from Mr. Peyton Randolph, in reply to an ex- 
press, and received on the 29th, by which they were 
informed that the gentlemen of the city and neighbor- 
hood of Williamsburg, had had full assurance from 
his excellency, that the affair of the powder should 
be accommodated, and advising that the gentlemen of 
Fredericksburg should proceed no farther. — On the 
receipt of this letter, a council was held of one hun- 
dred and two members, delegates of the provincial 
convention, and officers and special deputies of four- 
teen companies of light-horse, then rendezvoused on 
the ground; who, after the most spirited expression 



136 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

of their sentiments on the conduct of the governor, 
and after giving a mutual pledge to be in readiness at 
a moment's warning, to reassemble, and by force of 
arms to defend the laws, the liberty, and rights of 
this or any sister-colony from unjust and wicked in- 
vasion, advised the return of the several companies to 
their respective homes ; and also ordered that ex- 
presses should be despatched to the troops assembled 
at the Bowling Green, and also to the companies from 
Frederick, Berkley, Dunmore, and such other coun- 
ties as were then on their march, to return them 
thanks for their cheerful offers of service, and to ac- 
quaint them with the determination then taken. By 
way of parody on the governor's conclusion of tho 
proclamations, by which he was striving to keep down 
the spirit of the country, " God save the king," the 
council concluded their address with " God save the 
liberties of America." 

Mr. Henry, however, was not disposed to let this 
incident pass off so lightly. His was a mind that 
watched events with the coolness and sagacity of a 
veteran statesman. He kindled, indeed, in the uni- 
versal indignation which the conduct of the governor 
was so well calculated to excite ; seeing clearly the 
inconvenience which the colony must experience in 
the approaching contest, from the loss of even that 
small store of ammunition. This, however, was a 
minor object in his esteem. What he deemed of much 
higher importance was, that that hloiu, which must 
be struck sooner or later, should he struck at once, 
before an overwhelming force should enter the col- 
ony ; that that habitual deference and subjection 
which the people were accustomed to feel toward the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 137 

governor, as the representative of royalty, and which 
bound their spirits in a kind of torpid spell, should be 
dissolved and dissipated ; that the military resources 
of the country should be developed; that the people 
might see and feel their strength by being brought out 
together: that the revolution should be set in actual 
motion in the colony; that the martial prowess of the 
country should be awakened, and the soldiery ani- 
mated by that proud and resolute confidence, which 
a successful enterprise in the commencement of a 
contest never fails to inspire. These sentiments were 
then avowed by him to two confidential friends ; to 
whom he further declared that he considered the out- 
rage on the magazine a most fortunate circumstance ; 
and as one which would rouse the people from north 
to south. " You may in vain talk to them," said he, 
" about the duties on tea, &c. These things will not 
affect them. They depend on principles too ab- 
stracted for their apprehension and feeling. But 
tell them of the robbery of the magazine, and that 
the next step will be to disarm them, you bring the 
subject home to their bosoms, and they will be ready 
to fly to arms to defend themselves." 

To make of this circumstance all the advantage 
which he contemplated, as soon as the intelligence 
reached him from Williamsburg, he sent express ri- 
ders to the members of the Independent Company of 
Hanover, who were dispersed and resided in different 
parts of the country, requesting them to meet him in 
arms, at Kew Castle, on the second of May on busi- 

♦Col. Richard Morris and Captain George Dabney; on 
the authority of Mr. Dabney. 



138 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ness of the highest impormice to American liberty. 
In order to give greater dignity and authority to the 
decisions of that meeting, he convoked to the same 
place the county committee. When assembled, he ad- 
dressed them v^ith all the powers of his eloquence; 
laid open the plan on which the British ministry had 
fallen to reduce the colonies to subjection, by robbing 
them of all the means of defending their rights; 
spread before their eyes, in colors of vivid descrip- 
tion, the fields of Lexington and Concord, still float- 
ing with the blood of their countrymen, gloriously 
shed in the general cause; showed them that the re- 
cent plunder of the magazine in Williamsburg was 
nothing more than a part of the general system of 
subjugation ; that the moment was now come in which 
they were called upon to decide, whether they chose 
to live free, and hand down the noble inheritance to 
their children, or to become hewers of wood, and 
drawers of water to those lordlings, who were them- 
selves the tools of a corrujDt and tyrannical ministry ; 
he painted the country in a state of subjugation, and 
drew such pictures of wretched debasement and ab- 
ject vassalage, as filled their souls with horror and 
indignation ; on the other hand, he carried them, by 
the powers of his eloquence, to an eminence like 
Mount Pisgah ; showed them the land of promise, 
which was to be won by their valor, under the sup- 
port and guidance of Heaven, and sketched a vision 
of America, enjoying the smiles of liberty and peace, 
the rich productions of her agriculture waving on 
every field, her commerce whitening every sea, in 
tints so bright, so strong, so glowing, as set the souls 
of his hearers on fire. He had no doubt, he said^ 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 139 

that that God, who in former ages had hardened 
Pharoah's heart, that he might show forth his power 
and glory in the redemption of his chosen people, 
had, for similar purposes, permitted the flagrant out- 
rages which had occurred in Williamsburg, and 
throughout the continent. It was for them now to de- 
termine, whether thev were worthy of this divine in- 
terference, whether they w^ould accept the high boon 
now held out to them by Heaven ; that if they would, 
though it might lead them through a sea of blood, 
they were to remember that the same God whose 
power divided the Red sea for the deliverance of Is- 
rael, still reigned in all his glory, unchanged and un- 
changeable — was still the enemy of the oppressor, and 
the friend of the oppressed ; that he would cover them 
from their enemies by a pillar of cloud by day, and 
guide their feet through the night by a pillar of fire ; 
that for his own part, he was anxious that his native 
county should distinguish itself in this grand career 
of liberty and glory, and snatch the noble prize which 
was now offered to their grasp ; that no time was to 
be lost ; that their enemies in this colony were now 
few and weak ; that it would be easy for them, by a 
rapid and vigorous movement, to compel the restora- 
tion of the powder which had been carried off, or to 
make a reprisal on the king^s revenues in the hands 
of the receiver-general, which would fairly balance 
the account ; and that the Hanover volunteers would 
thus have an opportunity of striking the first blow in 
this colony, in the great cause of American liberty, 
and would cover themselves with never-fading laurels. 
These were heads of his harangue. I presume not 
to give the coloring. That was Mr, Henry's own, and 



140 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

beyond the power of any man's imitation. The e:^- 
fect, however, was equal to his wishes. The meeting 
was in a flame, and a decision immediately taken, that 
the powder should be retrieved, or counterbalanced 
by a reprisal. 

Capt. Samuel Meredith, who had heretofore com- 
manded the Independent Company, resigned his com- 
mission in Mr. Henry's favor, and the latter gentle- 
man was immediately invested with the chief com- 
mand of the Hanover volunteers. Mr. Meredith ac- 
cepted the commission of lieutenant ; and the present 
Col. Parke Goodall was appointed the ensign of the 
company. Having received orders from the com- 
mittee, correspondent with his own suggestions, Capt. 
Henry forthwith took up his line of March for Wil- 
liamsburg. Ensign Goodall was detached, with a 
party of sixteen men, to cross the river into King 
William county, the residence of Richard Corbin, 
the king's receiver-general ; to demand from him 
three hundred and thirty pounds, the estimated value 
of the powder; and, in the event of his refusal, to 
make him a prisoner. He was ordered, in this case, 
to treat his person w^ith all possible respect and ten- 
derness, and to bring him to Doncastle's ordinary, 
(^. e. tavern) about sixteen miles above Williamsburg, 
where the ensign was required, at all events, to rejoin 
the main body. The detachment, in pursuance of 
their orders, reached the residence of the receiver- 
general some hours after bedtime, and a guard was 
stationed around the house until morning. About 
daybreak, however, the ladies of the family made 
their appearance, and gave the commanding officer 
of the detachment the firm and correct assurance, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 141 

that Col. Corbin was not at home ; but that the 
house nvertheless, was open to search, if it was the 

"■ Inte meantime, the march of his gallant corps, 
in arms headed by a man of Mr. Henry's distinction, 
Trodue^ the mos't striking effects in e-y q-r er 
Correspondent companies started up on all side», and 
hastened to throw themselves under the banners of 
Heiry It is believed that five thousand men at 
ka t^vere in arms, and were crossing the country 
rt^d around his standard, and siij^port x with 
their lives. The march was conducted in the most 
Srrfect order, and with the most -rupulous -p^e 
to the country through which they passed. The^^^^^ 
of the royalists were filled with dismay^ Lady Dun 
more widi ber family retired to the^o^-|. a man 
nf war then lying off the town of Little lork. J^ven 
the patriots L Williamsburg were daunted by he 
Wdne s, and, as they deemed it, the rashness of the 
enterprie. Messenger after messenger was de 
splt hed to meet Mr. Henry on the way, and beg him 
r£ St from his purpose, and discharge his mem 
It was-in vain. He was inflexibly --1-d ^o f ef^ 
ih^ T>urt)ose of his expedition or to perish n the at 
tempt The messengers were therefore detained, that 
hTy might not report his strength; and the march 
tTcondnued with all possible celerity^ The go- 
ernor issued a proclamation, m which he d«iounced 
L movement, and called upon the people of the 



142 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

country to resist it. He rould as easily have called 
" spirits from the vasty deep." He himself seems 
not to have relied much on the efficacy of his procla- 
mation. The palace was therefore filled v\ath aiTQS, 
and a detachment of marines ordered up from the 
Fowey. Before daybreak, on the morning of the 4th 
of May, Captain Montague, the commander of that 
ship, landed a party of men, with the following let- 
ter, addressed to the Honorable Thomas ISTelson, the 
president of his majesty's council: — 

" Fowey, May 4/7^, 1775. 
*^Sir:— 

" I have this morning received certain information 
that his excellency Lord Dunmore, governor of Vir- 
ginia, is threatened with an attack at daybreak, this 
morning, at his palace in Williamsburg, and have 
thought proper to send a detachment from his majes- 
ty's ship under my command, to support his excel- 
lency: therefore strongly pray you to make use of 
every endeavor to prevent the party from being mo- 
lested and attacked, as in that case I must be under 
a necessity to fire upon this town. From 

'^ Geoege Montague." 

Lord Dunmore, how^ever, thought better of this 
subject, and caused Mr. Henry to be met at Don- 
castle's about sunrise on the same morning, with the 
receiver-general's bill of exchange, for the sum re- 
quired. It was accepted as a satisfaction for the 
powder, and the following receipt was passed by Mr. 
Henry : — 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 143 

" Doncasiles Ordinary, New Kent, May 4, 1775. 
■ — Received from the Hon. Richard Corbin, Esq., his 
majesty's receiver-general, 330?. as a compensation 
for the gunpowder lately taken out of the public mag- 
azine by the governor's order ; which money I prom- 
ise to convey»to the Virginia delegates at the general 
congress, to be, under their direction, laid out in gun- 
powder for the colony's use, and to be stored as they 
shall direct, until the next colony convention, or gen- 
eral assembly; unless it shall be necessary, in the 
meantime, to use the same in the defence of this col- 
ony. It is agreed, that in case the next convention 
shall determine that any part of the said money ought 
to be returned to his majesty's said receiver-general, 
that the same shall be done accordingly. 

" Patrick Hexey, jun. 

" Test — Samuel Meredith, 
Pakke Goodall." 

The march of the marines from the Fowey had, 
however, produced the most violent commotion both 
in York * and Williamsburg, Mr. Henry himself 

* " The town of York being somewhat alarmed by a let- 
ter from Captain Montague, commander of his majesty's 
ship the Fowey, addressed to the Hon. Thomas Nelson, 
esquire, president of his majesty's council in Virginia; 
and a copy of said letter being procured a motion was 
made, that the copy should be laid before the committee 
and considered. The copy was read, and is as follows: — 

" ' Fowey, May 4, 1775. 
" ' Sir, 

" ' I have this morning received certain information 
that his excellency the Lord Dunmore, governor of Vir- 
ginia, is threatened with an attack at daybreak this morn- 



14^ LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

seemed to apprehend thaTthe public treasury would 
be the next object of depredation, and that a pretext 
would be sought for it in the reprisal which had just 
been made. He therefore addressed, from Doncas- 
tle's, the following letter to Robert Carter Nicholas, 
esquire, the treasurer of the colony: — 

May 4, 1775. 

" Sir, 

" The affair of the powder is now settled, so as to 
produce satisfaction to me, and I earnestly wish to 
the colony in general. The people here have it in 

ing, at his palace in Williamsburg, and have thought prop- 
er to send a detachment from his majesty's ship under my 
command to support his excellency; therefore, strongly 
pray you to make use of every endeavor to prevent the 
party from being molested and attacked, as in that case 
I must be under the necessity to fire upon this town. 
From George Montague. 

" ' To the Eon. Thomas NelsonJ 

" The committee, together with Capt. Montague's letter 
taking into consideration of the time of its being sent, 
which was too late to permit the president to use his in- 
fluence, had the inhabitants been disposed to molest and 
attack the detachment; and further considering that Col. 
Nelson, who, had this threat been carried into execution, 
must have been a principal sufferer, was at that very mo- 
ment exerting his utmost endeavors in behalf of govern- 
ment, and the safety of his excellency's person, unani- 
mously come to the following resolutions: — 

" Resolved, That Capt. Montague, in threatening to fire 
upon a defencefess town, in case of an attack upon the 
detachment, in which said town might not be concerned, 
has testified a spirit of cruelty unprecedented in the annals 
of civilized times; that, in his late notice to the president, 
he has added insult to cruelty; and that, considering the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 14:5 

charge from Hanover committee, to tender their ser- 
vice to you, as a public officer, for the purpose of es- 
corting the public treasury to any place in this 
colony, where the money would be judged more safe 
than in the city of Williamsburg. The reprisal now 
made by the Hanover volunteers, though accom- 
plished in a manner less liable to the imputation of 
violent extremity, may possibly be the cause of future 
injury to the treasury. If, therefore, you apprehend 
the least danger, a sufficient guard is at your service. 
I beg the return of the bearer may be instant, because 
the men wish to know their destination. With great 
regard, I am, sir, your most humble servant, 

" Patrick Henky, jun." 

To this letter an answer was received from Mr. 
^Nicholas importing that he had no apprehension of 
the necessity, or propriety of the proffered service: 
and Mr. Henry understanding, also, that the private 
citizens of Williamsburg were in a great measure 
quieted from their late fears for their persons and 

circumstances already mentioned, of one of the most con- 
siderable inhabitants of said town, he has discovered the 
most hellish principles that can actuate a human mind. 

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the inhabitants 
of this town, and to the country in general, that they do 
not entertain or show any other mark of civility to Capt. 
Montague, besides what common decency and absolute nec- 
essity require. 

" Resolved, That the clerk do transmit the above pro- 
ceedings to the public printers to be inserted in the Vir- 
ginia gazettes. 

(A true copy.) 

William Russell, Clk. Com. 



146 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

property, judged it proper to proceed no farther. 
Their expedition having been crowned with success, 
the volunteers returned in triumph to their respective 
homes. The committee of Hanover again met ; gave 
them their warmest thanks for the vigor and pro- 
priety with which they had conducted the enterprise; 
and returned their acknowledgments, in suitable 
terms, to the many volunteers of the different coun- 
ties, who joined and were marching, and ready to 
co-operate with the volunteer company of Hanover. 

Two days after the return of the volunteers, and 
when all was again quiet, the governor thundered 
the following anathema from the palace: — 

" By his excellency, the Right Hon. John, Earl 
of Dunmore, his majesty's lieutenant and governor- 
general of the colony and dominion of Virginia, and 
vice-admiral of the same : — 



" A PKOCLAMATIOIT. 



" Virginia, to wit : — 

^^ Whereas, I have been informed, from undoubted 
authority that a certain Patrick Henry, of the county 
of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers, have 
taken up arms, chosen their officers, and styling them- 
selves an Independent Company, have marched out 
of their county, encamped and put themselves in a 
posture of war ; and have written and despatched let- 
ters to divers parts of the country, exciting the people 
to join in these outrageous and rebellious practices, 
to the great terror of all his majesty's faithful sub- 
jects, and in open defiance of law and government} 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 147 

and have committed other acts of violence, particu- 
larly in extorting from his majesty's receiver-general 
the sum of three hundred and thirty pounds, under 
pretence of replacing the powder I thought proper 
to order from the magazine : whence it undeniably ap- 
pears, that there is no longer the least security for 
the life or property of any man ; wherefore I have 
thought proper with the advice of his majesty's coun- 
cil, and in his majesty's name, to issue this my proc- 
lamation, strictly charging all persons upon their al- 
legiance, not to aid, abet, or give countenance to the 
said Patrick Henry, or any other persons concerned 
in such unwarrantable combinations ; but, on the con- 
trary, to oppose them and their designs by every 
means, which designs must otherwise inevitably in- 
volve the whole country in the most direful calamity, 
as they will call for the vengeance of offended maj- 
esty, and the insulted laws, to be exerted here to vin- 
dicate the constitutional authority of government. 
" Given under my hand and the seal of the colony, 
at Williamsburg, this 6th day of May, 1775, 
and in the 15th year of his majesty's reign. 

" DUNMORE." 

" God save the king." 

But Lord Dunmore's threats and denunciations 
had no other effect than to render more conspicuous 
and more honorable the man who was the object of 
them. Mr. Henry, who had been on the point of set- 
ting out for congress at the time when he had been 
called off by the intelligence from Williamsburg, now 
resumed his journey, and was escorted in triumph 
by a large party of gentlemen, as far as Hooe's ferry, 



148 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

on the Potomac. Messengers were sent after him 
from all directions, bearing the thanks and the ap- 
plause of his assembled countrymen, for his recent 
enterprise; and in such throngs did these addresses 
come, that the necessity of halting to read and answer 
them converted a journey of one day into a triumph 
of many. Thus, the same man, whose genius had in 
the year 1765 given the first political impulse to the 
revolution, had now the additional honor of heading 
the first military movement in Virginia, in support 
of the same cause. 



CHAPTER VL 

OPEN BREACH BETWEEN GOVEKNOR DUNMORE AND 
THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA. MR. HENRY WITHDRAWS 
PROM MILITARY LIFE ; IS ELECTED GOVERNOR. 

1775-1776. 

I CANNOT learn that Mr. Henry distinguished him- 
self peculiarly at this session of congress. The spirit 
of resistance was sufficiently excited ; and nothing re- 
mained but to organize that resistance, and to plan 
and execute the details which were to give it effect. 
In business of this nature, Mr. Henry, as we have 
seen, was not efficient. It has been already stated 
that he was unsuccessful in composition, of which 
much was done, and eminently done, at this session ; 
and the lax habits of his early life had implanted in 
him an insuperable aversion to the drudgery of de- 
tails. He could not endure confinement of any sort, 
nor the labor of close and solitary thinking. His 
habits were all social, and his mind delighted in un- 
limited range. His conclusions were never reached 
by an elaborate deduction of thought ; he gained them 
as it were per saltum ; yet with a certainty not less in- 
fallible than that of the driest and severest logician. 
It is not wonderful, therefore, that he felt himself 
lost amid the operations in which congress was now 

149 



150 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

engaged, and that he enjoyed the relief which was af- 
forded him, by a military appointment from his na- 
tive state. It will be proper, however, to explain par- 
ticularly the proceedings which led to this incident in 
the life of Mr. Henry. 

Shortly after the affair of the gunpowder, Lord 
^N^orth's conciliatory proposition, popularly called the 
Olive Branch arrived in America. Hereupon the 
governor of Virginia called a meeting of the house of 
burgesses; and as if the quarrel were now com- 
pletely over, Lady Dunmore and her family returned 
from the Fowey to the palace. 

On Thursday, the first of June, the general assem- 
bly, according to the proclamation of Lord Dunmore, 
met at the capitol in the city of Williamsburg. He 
addressed them with great earnestness on the alarm- 
ing state of the colony ; and exhibited the conciliatory 
proposition of the British ministry, as an advance on 
the part of the mother-country, which it was the duty 
of the colonists to meet with gratitude and devotion. 
The council answered him in a manner perfectly sat- 
isfactory ; but before he could receive the answer of 
the house of burgesses, an incident occurred, which 
drove his lordship precipitately from his palace, and 
terminated forever all friendly relations between 
himself and the people of Virginia. 

It seems, that during the late ferment, produced by 
the removal of the powder, and while Mr. Henry was 
on his march toward Williamsburg, some of the in- 
habitants of the town, to the great offence of the 
graver citizens, had possessed themselves of a few of 
the guns which still remained in the magazine. This 
step gave great displeasure as well as alarm to the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 151 

governor; and althongh the mayor and council, as 
tell as all the more respectable inhabitants of the 
town, condemned it in terms as strong as his own, 
and sincerely united in the means which were used to 
recover the arms, yet his lordship continued to brood 
over it in secret, until, with the aid of the minions 
of the palace, he hatched a scheme of low and cruel 
revenge, sufficient of itself to cover him with im- 
mortal infamy. It was on Monday night the 5th 
of June, that this scheme discovered itself. l^ast 
Monday night," says Purdie, " an unfortunate ac- 
cident happened to two persons of this city, who, 
with a number of others, had assembled at the mag- 
azine, to furnish themselves with arms. Upon their 
entering the door, one of the guns, which had a 
spring to it, and was charged eight fingers deep with 
slan-shot, went off, and lodged two balls m one of 
their shoulders, another entered at his wrist, and is 
not yet extracted : the other person had one of his 
fingers shot off, and the next to it so mvich shattered 
as to render it useless, by which sad misfortune he is 
deprived of the means of procuring a livelihood by 
his business. Spring-guns, it seems, were placed at 
other parts of the magazine, of tuUch the puhhc were 
totally ignorant; and certainly had any F'-f;^ ^°^^ 
his life, the perpetrator or perpetrators of this dia- 
bolical invention might have been justly branded 
with the opprobrious title of murderers. O tempora . 

O mores ! " .,,,,• •„„o r.f 

The indication naturally excited by this piece of 

deliberate and barbarous treachery, which was at 
once traced to Lord Dumnore, was farther aggra- 
vated by a discovery that several barrels of powder. 



152 Ltt'E OF PAmiCK HENRY. 

had been buried in the magazine, with the purpose, 
it was reasonably conjectured, of being used as a 
mine, and thus producing still more fatal destruction, 
when the occasion should offer. Early on the next 
morning, Lord Dimmore with his family, including 
Captain Foy, ffed from the palace to return to it no 
more, and took shelter on board the Fowey, from the 
vengeance which he knew he so justly deserved. ]^o 
commotion, however, had ensued to justify his re- 
treat. The people, indeed, were highly indignant, 
but they were silent and quiet. The suggestions of 
his lordship's conscience had alone produced his 
flight. He left behind him a message to the speaker 
and house of burgesses, in which he ascribed this 
movement to apprehensions for his personal safety; 
stated that he should fix his residence on board the 
Fowey ; that no interruption should be given to the 
sitting of the assembly ; that he should make the 
access to him easy and safe ; and thought it would 
be more agreeable to the house to send to him, from 
time to time, one or more of their members, as oc- 
casion might require, than to put the whole body to 
the trouble of moving to be near him. 

On receiving this message, the house immediately 
resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and pre- 
pared an answer, in which they expressed their deep 
concern at the step which he had taken — assuring 
him that his apprehensions of personal danger were 
entirely unfounded ; regretting that he had not ex- 
pressed them to the house previous to his departure, 
since, from their zeal and attachment to the preserva- 
tion of order and good government, they should have 
judged it their indispensable duty to endeavor to re- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. I53 

move any cause of disquietude. They express the 
anxiety with which they contemplate the very dis- 
agreeable situation of his most amiable lady and her 
family, and assure him, that they should think them- 
selves happy in being able to restore their perfect 
tranquillity, by removing all their fears. They re- 
gret his departure and the manner of it, as tending to 
keep up the gTeat uneasiness which had of late so 
imhappily prevailed in this country ; and declare that 
they will cheerfully concur in any measure that may 
be proposed, proper for the security of himseK and 
his family ; they remind him how impracticable it 
will be to carry on the business of the session with 
any tolerable degi*ee of propriety, or with that de- 
spatch which the advanced season of the year re- 
quired, whilst his lordship was so far removed from 
them, and so inconveniently situated; and conclude 
with entreating him, that he would be pleased to re- 
turn with his lady and family to the palace, which 
they say, they are persuaded will give the greatest 
satisfaction, and be the most likely means of quiet- 
ing the minds of the people. 

This communication was carried down to him by a 
deputation of two members of the council, and four 
of the house of burgesses ; and in reply to language 
so respectful, and assurances so friendly and con- 
ciliatory, his lordship returned an answer in which 
he charged them with having slighted his oUers of 
respect and civility, with giving countenance to the 
violent and disorderly proceedings of the people, and 
with a usurpation of the executive power in ordering 
and appointing guards to mount in the city of Wil- 
liamsburg, with the view, as was pretended;, to pro- 



154 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tect the magazine, but which might well be doubted, 
as there then remained nothing therein which re- 
quired being guarded ; he exhorts them to return 
within the pale of their constitutional power; to re- 
dress the many grievances which existed ; to open the 
courts of justice ; to disarm the independent com- 
panies, and what was not less essential, by their own 
example, and every means in their power, to abolish 
the spirit of persecution which pursued, with men- 
aces and acts of oppression, all his majesty's loyal 
and orderly subjects. For the accomplishment of 
which ends, he invited them to adjourn to the town 
of York, opposite to which the Foiuey lay, where he 
promised to meet and remain with them till their 
business should be finished. But with respect to their 
entreaty that he would return to the palace, he rep- 
resents to them that unless they closed in with the 
conciliatory proposition now offered to them by the 
British parliament, his return to Williamsburg would 
be as fruitless to the people, as possibly it might be 
dangerous to himself. So that he places the event 
of his returning, on their acceptance of Lord ]^orth's 
offer of conciliation. 

The house of burgesses now took up that proposi- 
tion ; and having examined it in every light, with the 
utmost attention, they conclude with a firm and dig- 
nified rejection of it and an appeal ^^ to the even- 
handed justice of that Being who doth no wrong; 
earnestly beseeching him to illuminate the councils, 
and prosper the endeavors, of those to whom Amer- 
ica had confided her hopes, that, through their wise 
direction, we may again see reunited the blessings of 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 155 

liberty and prosperity, and the most permanent har- 
mony with Great Britain.'^ * 

A correspondence on another topic was now opened 
between the council and burgesses, and the governor, 
Dunmore. The former addressed him with a re- 
quest, that he would order a large parcel of arms 
which he had left in the palace to be removed to the 
public magazine, a place of greater safety. This he 
peremptorily refused ; and ordered that those arms, 
belonging to the king, should not be touched without 
his express permission. In their reply, they say, that 
the arms may in some sort be considered as belonging 
to the king, as the supreme head of the government, 
and that they were properly under his lordship's di- 
rection ; yet, they humbly conceived, that they were 
originally provided, and had been preserved for the 
use of the country in cases of emergency. The pal- 
ace, they say, had indeed been hitherto much re- 
spected, but not so much out of regard to the build- 
ing, as the residence of his majesty's representative. 
Had his lordship thought fit to remain there, they 
would have had no apprehensions of danger ; but con- 
sidering these arms at present as exposed to his lord- 
ship's servants, and every rude invader, the security 
derived from his lordship's presence could not now 
be relied on. They, therefore, again entreat him to 
order the removal of the arms to the magazine. They 
then proceed to state, that they cannot decline repre- 
senting to him, that the important business of the 
assembly had been much impeded by his excellency's 

* This vigorous and eloquent production is from the 
same pen which drew the declaration of American Inde- 
pendence, that of Thomas Jefferson, 



156 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

removal from the palac^-that this step had deprived 
them of that free and necessary access to his lordship, 
to which they were entitled by the constitution of 
the country — that there were several bills of the last 
importance to the country, now ready to be presented 
to his excellency for his assent. They complain of 
the inconvenience to which they had been put in send- 
ing their members twelve miles to wait on his excel- 
lency, on board of one of his majesty's ships of war, 
to present their addresses — they state that they think 
it would be highly improper, and too great a depar- 
ture from the constitutional and accustomed mode of 
transacting business, to meet his excellency at any 
other place than the capitol, to present such bills as 
were ready for his signature — and, therefore, beseech 
him to return for this purpose. 

To all this he gave a very short answer ; that, as 
to the arms, he had already declared his intention, 
and conceived they were meddling with a subject 
which did not belong to them; he desired to know 
whom they designed by the term rude invader; that 
the disorders in Williamsburg and other parts of the 
country, had driven him from the palace ; and that, 
if any inconvenience had arisen to the assembly on 
that account, he was not chargeable with it ; that they 
had not been deprived of any necessary or free access 
to him ; that the constitution undoubtedly vested him 
with the power of calling the assembly to any place in 
the colony, which exigency might require; that not 
having been made acquainted with the whole pro- 
ceedings of the assembly, he knew of no bills of im- 
portance, which, if he were inclined to risk his per- 
son again among the people, the assembly had to 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 157 

present to liim, nor whether they were such as he 
could assent to. 

In the course of their correspondence he required 
the house to attend him on board the Fowey, for the 
purpose of obtaining his signature to the bills; and 
some of the members to prevent an actual dissolution 
of the government, and to give effect to the many 
necessary bills which they had passed, proposed to 
yield to this extraordinary requisition. The project, 
however, was exploded by a member's rising in his 
place, and relating the fable of the sick lion and the 
fox.* 

The governor having thus virtually abdicated his 
office, the government was, in effect, dissolved. The 
house hereupon resolved, '^ That his Lordship's mes- 
sage, requiring the house to attend him on board one 
of his- majesty's ships of war, is a high breach of the 
rights and privileges of this house." — " That the un- 
reasonable delays thrown into the proceedings of this 
house by the governor, and his evasive answers to 
the sincere and decent addresses of the representa- 
tives of the people, give us gTeat reason to fear, that 
a dangerous attack may be meditated against the un- 
happy people of this colony." — " It is, therefore, our 

* The reference is to La Fontaine, Book VI, Fable 14. 
The king of beasts, being sick in his cave, summoned all 
the beasts to visit him, promising a good passport and 
safe defence " against tooth and claw." When Mr. Fox 
approached the lion's den, he saw large numbers of foot- 
prints of various animals, but he observed that these foot- 
prints all led towards the den, and there were none re- 
turning. This roused his suspicions. No doubt, he re- 
flected, the passport is perfectly good; and yet I believe 
that that cave has a good entrance, but I see no exit! 



158 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

opinion, they say, that tney prepare for the preser- 
vation of their property, and their inestimable rights 
and liberties with the greatest care and attention.'^ — 
" That we do and will bear faith and true allegiance 
to our most gracious sovereign, George III., our only 
lawful and rightful king: that we will, at all times, 
to the utmost of our power, and at the risk of our 
lives and properties, maintain and defend his gov- 
ernment in this colony, as founded on the established 
laws and principles of the constitution : that it is our 
most earnest desire to preserve and strengthen those 
bonds of amity, with all our fellow-subjects in Great 
Britain, which are so very essential to the prosperity 
and happiness of both coimtries." Having adopted 
these resolutions without a dissenting voice they ad- 
journed themselves to the 12th of October following; 
and the delegates were summoned to meet in conven- 
tion at the town of Richmond, on the 17th of July.* 

Immediately on the adjournment of the house of 
burgesses, a very full meeting of the citizens of Wil- 
liamsburg convened, on the call of Peyton Randolph, 
at the court-house in that city, ^^ to consider of the ex- 
pediency of stationing a number of men there for the 
public safety; as well to assist the citizens in their 
nightly watches, as to guard against any surprise 

* On this occasion, Richard H. Lee, standing with two 
of the burgesses in the porch of the capitol, inscribed with 
his pencil on a pillar of the capitol, these prophetic lines, 
from Shakespeare: — 

"When shall we three meet again? 

In thunder, lightning, and in rain; 

When the hurly-burly's done. 

When the battle's lost and toon" 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 159 

from our enemies; whereupon it was unanimonslj 
agreed (until the general convention should meet) to 
invite down from a number of counties, to the amount 
of two hundred and fifty men. Meanwhile, until 
they arrived, the neighboring counties, they say, were 
kind enough to lend them their assistance. 

On the 29th of June, the Foivey ship, and Magda- 
len schooner, sailed from York; on board the latter 
went Lady Dunmore, and the rest of the governor's 
family, bound for England ; and the colony was for a 
short time relieved by the report that the Fowey car- 
ried Lord Dunmore and Captain Foy on a visit to 
General Gage, at Boston. This report, however, was 
unfounded. The Fowey merely escorted the Magda- 
len to the Capes, and then returned again to her moor- 
ings, before York. The Otter sloop of war, com- 
manded by Captain Squire, thereupon fell down to 
the mouth of York river, with the intention of cruis- 
ing along the coast, and seizing all provision vessels ; 
and soon became distinguished at least for the ma- 
lignity of her attempts. The Fowey was relieved by 
the ship Mercury, of 24 gims, John Macartney com- 
mander, and departed for Boston, carrying with her 
the now obnoxious Captain Foy. The governor's do- 
mestics left the palace, and removed to his farm at 
Montibello, about six miles below Williamsburg ; and 
the governor himself fixed his station at the town of 
Portsmouth. In this posture of things, on Monday, 
the 24th of July, 1775, the colonial convention met 
at the city of Richmond. 

The proceedings of this convention were marked 
by a character of great decision and vigor. One of 
their first measures was an ordinance for raising and 



160 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

embodying a sufficient lorce for the defence and pro- 
tection of the colony. By this ordinance it was pro- 
vided, that two regiments of regulars, to consist of 
one thousand and twenty privates, rank and file, 
should be forthwith raised and taken into the pay of 
the colony; and a competent regular force was also 
provided for the protection of the western frontier. 
The whole colony was divided into sixteen military 
districts; with a provision, that a regiment of six 
hundred and eighty men, rank and file, should be 
raised on the eastern shore district, and a battalion of 
&ve hundred in each of the others; to be forthwith 
armed, trained, furnished with all military accoutre- 
ments, and ready to march at a minute's warning. 

A committee, called the committee of safety, was 
also organized^ with functions and powers analogous 
to those of the executive department and apparently 
designed to supply the vacancy occasioned by the gov- 
ernor's abdication of that branch of the government. 

The convention now proceeded to the appointment 
of officers to command the regular forces. The lofty 
stand which Mr. Henry had taken in the American 
cause, his increasing popularity, and the prompt and 
energetic movement which he had made in the affair 
of the gunpowder, brought him prominently before 
the view of the house ; and he was elected the colonel 
of the first regiment, and the commander of all the 
forces raised, and to be raised, for the defence of the 
colony. Mr. William Woodford, who is said to have 
distinguished himself in the French and Indian war, 
was appointed to the command of the second regi- 
ment. 

The place of rendezvous for the troops was the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 161 

city of Williamsburg. Mr. Henry was at his post on 
the 20th of September, examining the grounds adja- 
cent to the city, for the purpose of selecting an en- 
campment ; and the place chosen was at the back of 
William and Mary college. The troops were re- 
cruited and poured in with wonderful rapidity. The 
papers of the day teem with the annunciation of com- 
pany after company, both regulars and minute-men, 
with the highest encomiums on the appearance and 
spirit of the troops ; and had the purpose been offen- 
sive war, Col. Henry was soon in a situation to an- 
nihilate any force that Lord Dunmore could at that 
time have arrayed against him. But there was, in 
truth, something extremely singular and embarrass- 
ing in the situation of the parties in regard to each 
other. It was not war, nor w^as it peace. The very 
ordinance by which these troops were raised, was 
filled with professions of allegiance and fidelity to 
George III. — professions, whose sincerity there is 
the less reason to doubt, because they are confined to 
the exercise of his constitutional powers, and stand 
connected with an expression of their firm determina- 
tion to resist' any attempt on the liberties of the coun- 
try. The only intelligible purpose, therefore, for 
which these troops were raised, was a preparation for 
defence ; and for defence against an attempt to en- 
force the parliamentary taxes upon this colony. With 
respect to Lord Dunmore, he was indeed considered 
as having abandoned the duties of his office : yet still 
he was regarded as the governor of Virginia, and 
there seems to have been no disposition to offer vio- 
lence to his person. 

Dunmore, on his part, considered the colony as in 
II 



162 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

a state of open and general rebellion ; not merely de- 
signing to resist an attempt to enforce upon them an 
obnoxious tax, but to subvert the regal government 
wholly and entirely; and had his power been equal 
to his wishes, there is no reason to doubt that he 
would have disarmed the colony, and hung up with- 
out ceremony, the leaders of this traitorous revolt, 
as he affected to consider it. His impotence, how- 
ever, and the aversion of the colonists to act other- 
wise than defensively, produced a suspense full of the 
most painful anxiety. 

In the meantime, Capt. Squire commander of his 
majesty's sloop the Otter^ had been laboring through- 
out the summer with some success, to change the de- 
fensive attitude of the colony. He was engaged in 
cruising continually in James and York rivers, plun- 
dering the defenceless shores, and carrying off the 
slaves, wherever seduction or force could place them 
in his power. These piratical excursions had wrought 
up the citizens who were not in arms to a very high 
pitch of resentment ; and an accident soon gave them 
an opportunity of partial reprisal, which they did 
not fail to seize. On the 2d of September, the cap- 
tain, sailing in a tender, on a marauding expedition 
from James to York river, was encountered by a 
violent tempest, and his tender was driven on shore, 
upon Back river, near Hampton. It was night, and 
the storm still raging: — the captain and his men, dis- 
trusting (unjustly, as it would seem from the papers) 
the hospitality of the inhabitants, made their escape 
through the woods ; the vessel was on the next day dis- 
covered and burnt by the people of the neighborhood. 
In consequence of this act, the captain addressed the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. ~ 163 

following letter to the committee of the town of 
Hampton : — 

" Otter sloop, Norfolk river, Sept. 10, 1775)^ 
" Gentlemen, 

"Whereas, a sloop tender, manned and armed in 
his majestj^'s service, w^as, on Saturday the 2d in- 
stant, in a violent gale of wind, cast on shore in Back 
river, Elizabeth county, having on board the under- 
mentioned king's stores, which the inhabitants of 
Hampton thought proper to seize : I am therefore to 
desire, that the king's sloop, with all the stores be- 
longing to her, be immediately returned ; or the peo- 
ple of Hampton, who committed the outrage, must- 
be answerable for the consequences. 

" I am, gentlemen, your humble servant, 

" Matthew Squire.'* 

This letter, with a catalogue of the stores, having 
been communicated to the committee of Williams- 
burg, and by them having been laid before the com- 
manding officer of the volunteers of that place, Major 
James Innes, at the head of a hundred men, who 
courted the enterprise, flew to Hampton to repel the 
threatened invasion. Squire, however, satisfied him- 
self for the present, by falling down to Hampton 
road, where he seized the passage boats, with the ne- 
groes in them, by way of reprisal, as he alleged, for 
the stores, &c., taken out of his tender when driven 
ashore in the late storm ; " which boats and negroes," 
adds Purdie's paper of the day, " it is likely he in- 
tends taking into the king's service, to send out a pi- 
rating for hogs, fowls, &c. A very pretty occupation 
for the captain of one of his majesty's ships of war." 



"164 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

The next paper announces the movements of Squire 
by a paragraph, which I extract verbatim^ as showing 
in an amusing light, the spirit of the times, and as 
Camden says, '^ the plain and jolly mirth of our an- 
cestors," even in the midst of misfortunes: — '^ We 
hear that the renoAvned Captain Squire, of his maj- 
esty's sloop Otter, is gone up the bay for Baltimore in 
Maryland ; on his old t7'ade, it is to be presumed, of 
negro-catching, pillaging the farms and plantations 
of their stock and poultry, and other illustrious ac- 
tions, highly becoming a Squire in the king's navy. 
Some say, his errand was to watch for a quantity of 
gunpowder intended for this colony ; but that val- 
uable is now safely landed where he dare not come to 
smell it." 

The same paper contains the following answer 
from the committee of Hampton to Squire's letter : — 

" To Matthew Squire, Esq., commander of his majes- 
ty's sloop Otter, lying in Hampton roads. 

" Hampton, September 16, 1775. 
" Sir, 

" Yours of the 10th instant, directed to the com- 
mittee of the town of Hampton, reciting, that a 
sloop tender on his majesty's service was, on the 2d 
instant, cast on shore near this place, having on board 
some of the king's stores, which you say were seized 
by the inhabitants, and demanding an immediate re- 
turn of the same, or that the people of Hampton must 
answer the consequences of such outrage, was this 
day laid before them, who knowing the above recital 
to be injurious and untrue, think proper here to men- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. l^ 

tion the facts relative to this matter. The sloop, we 
apprehend, was not in his majesty's service, as we 
are well assured that you were on a pillaging or pleas- 
uring party ; and although it gives us pain to use in- 
delicate expressions, yet the treatment received from 
you calls for a statement of facts, in the simple lan- 
guage of truth, however harsh it may sound. To 
your own heart we appeal for the candor with which 
we have stated them — ^to that heart which drove you 
into the woods in the most tempestuous weather, in 
one of the darkest nights, to avoid the much injured 
and innocent inhabitants of this county, who had 
never threatened or ill used you, and who would at 
that time have received you, we are assured; with hu- 
manity and civility, had you made yourself and situa- 
tion known to them. Neither the vessel nor stores 
were seized by the inhabitants of Hampton ; the gun- 
ner, one Mr. Gray, and the pilot, one Mr. Ruth, who 
were employed by you on this party, are men, we 
hope, who will still assert the truth. From them, 
divers of our members were informed that the vessel 
and stores, together with a good seine, (which you, 
without cause, so hastily deserted,) were given up 
as irrecoverably lost, by the officers, and some of the 
proprietors, to one Finn, near whose house you were 
driven on shore, as a reward for his entertaining you, 
&c., with respect and decency. 

" The threats of a person whose conduct hath 
evinced that he was not only capable, but desirous of 
doing us, in our then defenceless state, the greatest in- 
justice, we confess, were somewhat alarming; but 
with the greatest pleasure we can inform you, our ap- 
prehensions are now removed. 



160 l^IFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

" Althongli we know that we cannot legally be 
called to account for that which you are pleased to 
style an outrage, and notwithstanding we have hither- 
to, by you, been treated with iniquity, we will, as far 
as in our power lies, do you right upon just and 
equitable terms. 

^^ First. We, on behalf of the community, require 
from you the restitution of a certain Joseph Harris, 
the property of a gentleman of our town, and all other 
our slaves whom you may have on board ; which said 
Harris, as well as other slaves, hath been long har- 
bored, and often employed, with your knowledge, (as 
appeared to us by the confession of Ruth and others, 
and is well known to all your men,) in pillaging us, 
under cover of night, of our sheep and other live 
stock. 

" Secondly. We require that you will send on 
shore all boats, with their hands, and every other 
thing you have detained on this occasion. 

" And lastly. That you shall not, by your own ar- 
bitrary authority, undertake to insult, molest, inter- 
rupt, or detain, the persons or property of any one 
passing to and from this town, as you have frequently 
done for some time past. 

" Upon complying with those requisitions, we will 
endeavor to procure every article left on our shore, 
and shall be ready to deliver them to your pilot and 
gunner, of whose good behavior we have had some 
proofs. 

We are, &:c. 
" The Committee of Elizabeth City county 
and town of Hampton,^^ 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 167 

In the meantime, Squire's threat against Hampton 
was not an empty one, as is proven by the following 
account of the attempt to execute it ; the article is ex- 
tracted from a supplement to Purdie's paper of Oc- 
tober 27th, 1775 :— 

" After Lord Dunmore, with his troops and the 
navy, had been for several weeks seizing the persons 
and property of his majesty's peaceable subjects in 
this colony — On Wednesday night last, a party from 
an armed tender landed near Hampton, and took away 
a valuable negro slave and a sail from the owner. 
JSText morning there appeared off the mouth of Hamp- 
ton river, a large armed schooner, a sloop, and three 
tenders, with soldiers on board, and a message was re- 
ceived at Hampton from Captain Squire, on board 
the schooner, that he would that day land and burn 
the towm ; on which a company of regulars, and a 
company of minute-men, who had been placed there 
in consequence of former threats denounced against 
that place, made the best disposition to prevent their 
landing, aided by a body of militia who v^^ere sud- 
denly called together on the occasion. The enemy 
accordingly attempted to land, but were retarded by 
some boats sunk across the channel for that purpose. 
Upon this they fired several small cannon at the 
provincials without any effect, who in return dis- 
charged their small arms so effectually, as to make 
the enemy move off, with the loss of several men, as it 
is believed. But they had, in the meantime burnt 
down a house belonging to Mr. Cooper, on the river. 
On intelligence of this reaching Williamsburg, about 
nine o'clock at night, a company of riflemen was de- 



168 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

spatched to the aid of Hampton, and the colonel of 
the 2d regiment sent to take the command of the 
whole; who with the company, arrived about eight 
o'clock next morning. The enemy had in the night 
cut through the boats sunk, and made a passage for 
their vessels, which were drawn close up to the town, 
and began to fire upon it soon after the arrival of the 
party from Williamsburg; but as soon as our men 
were so disposed as to give them a few shot, they went 
off so hastily that our people took a small tender, with 
five white men, a woman, and two slaves, six swivels, 
seven muskets, some small arms, a sword, pistols, and 
other things, and several papers belonging to Lieu- 
tenant Wright, who made his escape by jumping over- 
board and swimming away with Mr. King's man, who 
are on shore, and a pursuit it is hoped may overtake 
them. There were two of the men in the vessel mor- 
tally wounded ; one is since dead, and the other near 
his end. Besides which, we are informed, nine were 
seen to be thrown overboard from one of the vessels. 
We have not a man even wounded. The vessels went 
over to ISTorfolk, and we are informed the whole 
force from thence is intended to visit Hampton this 
day. If they should, we hope our brave troops are 
prepared for them ; and we can with pleasure assure 
the public, that every part of them behaved with 
spirit and bravery, and are wishing for another skir- 
mish.'' 

The next paper ciontains the following card to Cap- 
tain Squire, which is inserted merely as another 
specimen of the character of the times : — 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRt-. 1^0 

Williamsburg, November Sd. 

" The riflemen and soldiers of Hampton desire 
their compliments to Captain Squire and his squad- 
ron, and wish to know how thej approve the reception 
they met last Friday. Should he incline to renew 
his visit, they will be glad to see him ; otherwise, in 
point of complaisance, they will be under the neces- 
sity of returning the visit. If he cannot find the ear 
that was cut off, they hope he will wear a wig to hide 
the mark ; for perhaps it may not be necessary that all 
should know chance had effected that which the laws 
ought to have done." 

In the meantime. Lord Dunmore, with a motley 
band of tories, negroes, and recruits from St. Augus- 
tine's, was " cutting such fantastic capers " in the 
countrv round about ^N^orfolk, as made it necessary to 
crush him or drive him from the state. With this 
view, the committee of safety (who, by their consti- 
tution, were authorized to direct all military move- 
ments) detached Colonel Woodford, at the head of 
about eight hundred men to cross James river at 
Sandy Point, and go in pursuit of his lordship. Col- 
onel Henry himself had been anxious for this service, 
and is said to have solicited it in vain. But the com- 
mittee of safety* seem to have distrusted too much his 

* The committee of safety was composed of the following 
gentlemen: — Edmund Pendleton, George Mason, Hon. John 
Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Paul Carring- 
ton, Dudley Digges, William Cabell, Carter Braxton, James 
Mercer, and John Tabb, esquires. 

The clause of the ordinance of convention which author- 
ized this committee to direct all military movements is 
the following: — 



lYO LIJ^E OF PATRICK HENRY. 

want of military experience, to confide to him so im- 
portant an enterprise. The disgust which Mr. Henry 
had conceived at the palpable reflection on his mili- 
tary capacity, was increased by Colonel Woodford's 
refusal to acknowledge his superiority in command. 
This gentleman, after his departure from Williams- 
burg, on the expedition against Dunmore, considered 
himself as no longer under Mr. Henry's authority; 
and consequently addressed all his communications to 
the convention when in session, and when not so, to 
the committe of safety. On the 6th December, 1775, 
Mr. Henry sent an express to Col. Woodford, with the 
following letter: — 

" On Virginia service. 

" To William Woodford, Esq., colonel of the second 

regiment of the Virginia forces. 

" Headquarters, Dec. 6, 1775. 
" Sir, 

" Not hearing of any despatch from you for a 
long time, I can no longer forbear sending to know 
your situation, and what has occurred. Every one, as 
well as myself, is vastly anxious to hear how all 
stands with you. In case you think any thing could 

" And whereas it may be necessary for the public secur- 
ity, that the forces to be raised by virtue of this ordi- 
nance should, as occasion may require, be marched to 
different parts of the colony, and that the officers should 
be subject to a proper control. Be it ordained hy the au- 
thority aforesaid, That the officers and soldiers under 
such command shall in all things, not otherwise particu- 
larly provided for by this ordinance, and the articles estab- 
lished for their regulation, be under the control, and sub- 
ject to the order of the general committee of safety. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 1^1 

be done to aid and forward the enterprise you have in 
hand, please to write it. But I wish to know your 
situation, particularly with that of the enemy, that 
the whole may be laid before the convention now here. 
The number and designs of the enemy, as you have 
collected it, might open some prospects to us, that 
might enable us to form some diversion in your favor. 
The bearer has orders to lose no time, and return with 
all possible haste. I am, sir, your most humble ser- 
vant, 

" P.^IIenby, jun. 
" P. S. Captain Alexander's company is not yet 
come. 

^' Col. Woodford." 

To this letter, on the next day, he received the fol- 
lowing answer from Col. Woodford : — 

" Great Bridge, 7th Dec, 1775. 
" Sir, 

" I have received yours per express ; in answer to 
which must inform you, that, understanding you were 
out of town, I have not written you before last Mon- 
day, by the return of the honorable the convention's 
express, when I referred you to my letter to them for 
every particular respecting mine and the enemy's 
situation. I wrote them again yesterday and this 
morning, which no doubt they will communicate to 
you, as commanding officer of the troops at Williams- 
burg. When joined, I shall always esteem myself 
immediately under your command, and will obey ac- 
cordingly; but when sent to command a separate 
and distinct body of troops, under the immediate 



172 LIFE OF PATRICK HENUY. 

instructions of the committee of safety — whenever 
that body or the honorable convention is sitting; I 
look upon it as my indispensable duty to address my 
intelligence to them, as the supreme power in this 
colony. If I judge wrong, I hope that honorable 
body will set me right. I would wish to keep up 
the greatest harmony between us, for the good of 
the cause we are engaged in ; but cannot bear to be 
supposed to have neglected my duty, when I have 
done every thing I conceived to be so. The enemy 
are strongly fortified on the other side the bridge, 
and a great number of negroes and tories with them ; 
my prisoners disagree as to the numbers. We are 
situate here in mud and mire, exposed to every hard- 
ship that can be conceived, but the want of provis- 
ions, of which our stock is but small, the men suffer- 
ing for shoes ; and if ever soldiers deserved a second 
blanket in any service, they do in this ; our stock 
of ammunition, much reduced, no bullet-moulds that 
were good for any thing sent to run up our lead, till 
those sent the other day by Mr. Page. If these 
necessaries and better arms had been furnished in 
time for this detachment, they might have prevented 
much trouble and great expense to this colony. Most 
of those arms I received the other day from Williams- 
burg are rather to be considered as lumber, than fit 
to be put in men's hands, in the face of an enemy: 
with much repair, some of them will do ; with those, 
and what I have taken from the enemy, hope to 
be better armed in a few days. I have written to the 
convention, that it was my opinion, the greatest part 
of the first regiment ought immediately to march 
to the scene of action with some cannon, and a supply 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. I73 

of ammunition, and every other necessary for war 
that the colony can muster, that a stop may be put 
to the enemy's progress. As to the Carolina troops 
and cannon, they are by no means what I was made 
to expect : 60 of them are here, and 100 will be here 
to-morrow ; more, it is said, will follow in a few days, 
under Col. Howe ; badly armed, cannon not mounted, 
no furniture to them. How long these people will 
choose to stay, it is impossible for me to say; 99 in 
100 of these lower people rank tories. From all 
these informations, if you can make a diversion in 
my favor, it will be of service to the colony, and very 
acceptable to mj'self and soldiers, whom, if possible, 
I will endeavor to keep easy under their hard duty, 
but begin to doubt whether it will be the case long." 

In two days after the receipt of this letter came 
the news of the victory of the Great Bridge, by 
which Col. Woodford at once threw into the shade 
the military pretensions of all the other state officers ; 
a circumstance not very well calculated to gild the 
pill of contumacy, which he had just presented to 
the commander-in-chief. The committee of safety 
had now a delicate part to act between these two 
officers ; they were extremely anxious to avoid the 
decision of the question which had arisen between 
them, seeing very distinctly that their decision could 
not but disappoint very painfully that gentleman 
who was their favorite officer. They seem to have 
been apprehensive that Col. Woodford would be led, 
by that decision, to resign in disgust ; and were justly 
alarmed at the idea of losing the services of so val- 
uable an officer, especially after the distinction which 



174 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

he had recently gained at the Great Bridge. Mr. 
Henry, however, insisted that the committee or con- 
vention should determine the question, as being the 
only way to settle the construction of his commission. 
It was accordingly taken up, and decided by the fol- 
lowing order of the committee : — 

" In committee — December, mdcclxxv. 

" Resolved, unanimously. That Colonel Woodford, 
although acting upon a separate and detached com- 
mand, ought to correspond with Colonel Henry, and 
make returns to him at proper times of the state and 
condition of the forces under his command ; and also 
that he is subject to his orders, when the conven- 
tion, or the committee of safety, is not sitting, but 
that while either of those bodies are sitting, he is to 
receive his orders from one of them.'^ 

The address which was thought necessary in com- 
municating this resolution to Colonel Woodford, is 
a proof of the very high estimate in which he was held 
by the committee, and the same evidence furnishes 
very decisive proof that Colonel Henry had not owed 
his military appointment to the suffrage of those 
members of the committee who maintained the cor- 
respondence. Thus, on the 13th of December, 1775, 
a member of the convention addressed a letter to Col- 
onel Woodford, which seems to have been a prepara- 
tive for the resolution of the committee, and is cer- 
tainly suited, with great dexterity, to that object; 
the writer, among other things, says : — I have talked 
with Colonel Henry about this matter; he thinks 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 175 

K 
he has been ill-treated, and insists the officers under 

his command shall submit to his orders. I recom- 
mended it to him to treat the business with caution 
and temper ; as a difference at this critical moment be- 
tween our troops would be attended with the most 
fatal consequences ; and took the liberty to assure him 
you would, I was certain, submit to whatever was 
thought just and reasonable. He has laid the letter 
before the committee of safety, whose sentiments 
upon the subject I expect you must have received 
before this. I hope it will not come before us,* but 
from what Colonel Henry said, he intimated it must, 
as it could be no otherwise determined. . . I very 
cordially congratulate you on the success at the 
Bridge and the reduction of the fort, which will give 
our troops the benefit of better and more wholesome 
ground. 

But the letter from the chairman of the committee, 
which enclosed the resolution, is a masterpiece of 
address, so far as relates to the feelings of Col. 
Woodford; though certainly not well judged to pro- 
mote the permanent harmony of those officers, by 
inspiring sentiments of respect and subordination 
for the superior. The letter bears date on the 24th 
of December, 1775, it is written in a strain of the 
most frank and conciliatory friendship — full of de- 
served eulogy on Colonel Woodford's conduct — and 
very far from complimentary to the colonel of the 
first regiment. In relation to this gentleman, (after 
having mentioned the resolution of raising other 
regiments,) he says: — " The field-officers to each reg- 
iment w^ill be named here, and recommended to con- 
* The Convention. 



170 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

gress ; in case our army is taken into continental pay, 
thej will send commissions. A general officer will 
be chosen there, I doubt not, and sent us ; with that 
matter, I hope we shall not intermeddle, lest it should 
be thought propriety requires our calling or rather 
recommending our present first officer to that station. 
Believe me, sir, the unlucky step of calling that 
gentleman from our councils, where he was useful, 
into the field, in an important station, the duties of 
which he must, in the nature of things, be an entire 
stranger to has given me many an anxious and un- 
easy moment. In consequence of this mistaken step, 
which cannot now be retracted or remedied, for he 
has done nothing worthy of degradation, and must 
keep his rank, we must be deprived of the service of 
some able officers, whose honor and former ranks 
will not suffer them to act under him in this junc- 
ture, when we so much need their services. 

Mr. Henry had too much sagacity not to perceive 
the light in which he was viewed by the committee 
of safety, and too much sensibility not to be wounded 
by the discovery. His situation was indeed, at this 
time, most painfully embarrassing. The rank which 
he had held was full of the promise of honor and dis- 
tinction ; he was the first officer of the Virginia 
forces ; the celebrity which he had already attained 
among his countrymen, not only by his political re- 
sistance to the measures of the British parliament, 
but by the bold and daring military enterprise which 
he had headed the preceding year, in the affair of 
the gunpowder, led his countrymen to expect, that 
the appointment which he now held would not be 
a barren one, but that he would mark it with the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 1^7 

characters of his extraordinary genius, and become 
as distinguished in the field as he had been in the 
senate. He knew that these expectations were en- 
tertained and had every disposition to realize them; 
but his wishes and his hopes were perpetually over- 
ruled by the committee of safety, who commanded 
over him, and who gratuitously distrusting his capa- 
city for war, would give him no opportunity of mak- 
ing trial of it. Yet Mr. Henry, untried, has been 
most unjustly slighted as a soldier, and spoken of 
as a mere military cipher 1 If I have not been mis- 
informed, some of those who composed this very 
committee did, in aftertimes, frequently allude to 
this period of his life, to prove the practical inutility 
of his character, and have applied to him the saying, 
which Wilkes applied to Lord Catham, that " all his 
power and efficacy was seated in his tongue." What 
figure he might have made in war, had the opportu- 
nity been allowed him, can now be only matter of 
speculation. His personal bravery, so far as I have 
heard, has never been called in question ; or if it 
has, it has been without evidence : and neither his 
ardor in the public cause, nor his strong natural 
sense, can with any color of justice be disputed. If 
we superadd to these qualities that presence of mind, 
that promptitude, boldness, and novelty of view — 
that dexterous address, and fertility of expedient, 
for which he was remarkable — I can see no reason 
to doubt, that he would have justified the highest ex- 
pectations of his admirers, had he been permitted 
to command the expedition which he courted. As 
to his want of experience, the alleged ground for 
keeping him so ignominiously confined to head-quar- 

12 



17S LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ters, he possessed pretty^early as mucli experience 
as Colonel Washington had when he covered the re- 
treat of Braddock's routed forces ; nor would it seem 
to comport with that respect which the committee 
owed to the convention, from whom both Colonel 
Henry and themselves had received their respective 
appointments, to arrogate the power of reversing 
the decree of the convention, and practically degrad- 
ing the officer of their first choice. It is certain 
that the committee were severely spoken of at the 
day, and that the people, as well as the soldiery, did 
not hesitate openly to impute their conduct toward 
Mr. Henry to personal envy. 

Other humiliations yet awaited him. Shortly 
after the aifair of the Great Bridge, Colonel Howe, 
of North Carolina, at the head of five or six hun- 
dred men of that state, joined Colonel Woodford; 
and taking the command of the whole, with the con- 
sent of the latter gentleman, who yielded to the sen- 
iority of his commission, marched with their united 
forces into I^orfolk, which had been evacuated by 
the British. From this post Colonel Howe contin- 
ually addressed his communications to the committee 
of safety, or to the convention ; and Colonel Henry, 
after having seen his lawful rights and honors trans- 
ferred, in the first instance, to an inferior officer of 
his own, had now the mortification of seeing himself 
completely superseded, and almost annihilated, by 
an officer from another state of only equal rank. 

But even this w^as not all : six additional regiments 
had been raised by the convention, and congress had 
been solicited to take the Virginia troops on con- 
tinental establishment. They resolved to take the six 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 1T9 

new regiments, passing by the two first ; a discrim- 
ination which conveys so palpable a reflection on the 
two first regiments, that it is difficult to account for 
it, except by the secret influence of that unfriendly 
star, which had hitherto controlled and obscured Mr. 
Henry's military destinies. The measure was so 
exactly adjusted to the wish expressed by Colonel 
Woodford's correspondent, that congress would not 
devolve the chief command of the Virginia forces on 
Colonel Henry, that it is difiicult to avoid the sus- 
picion that the suggestion came from the same quar- 
ter. The convention, however, now interfered in 
behalf of their favorite; and remonstrated against 
this degradation of the ofiicers of their first choice ; 
earnestly recommending it to congress, if they ad- 
hered to their resolution of taking into continental 
pay no more than six regiments, to suffer the two 
first to stand first in the arrangement. This course 
was accordingly adopted ; but, at the same time, com- 
missions of brigadier-general were forwarded by con- 
gTess to Colonel Howe, and Colonel Andrew Lewis. 
The reader, if he knows any thing of the scrupu- 
lous and even fastidious delicacy with which mili- 
tary officers watch the most distant reflection upon 
their competency, will not be surprised that Mr. 
Henry refused the continental commission of col- 
onel, which was now offered to him, and immediately 
resigned that which he held from the state. His res- 
ignation produced a commotion in the camp, which 
wore at first an alarming aspect ; and would probably 
have had an extremely unpropitious effect on the mil- 
itary efforts of the state, had it not been instantan- 
eously quelled by his own patriotic exertions. Thq 



180 LIFE OF pathick henry. 

following is the notice off his transaction from Pur- 
die's paper of March 1, 1776 : — 

" Yesterday morning, the troops in this city being 
informed that Patrick Henry, esquire, commander- 
in-chief of the Virginia forces, was about to leave 
them, the whole went into deep mourning, and being 
under arms, waited on him at his lodgings, when they 
addressed him in the following manner : — 



(C ( 



To Patrick Henry, jun. Esquire, 



a i 



Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the 
obligations we lie under to you, for the polite, hu- 
mane, and tender treatment manifested to us through- 
out the whole of your conduct, while we had the honor 
of being under your command, permit us to offer you 
our sincere thanks, as the only tribute we have in our 
power to pay to your real merits. Notwithstanding 
your withdrawing yourself from the service fills us 
with the most poignant sorrow, as it at once deprives 
us of our father and general; yet as gentlemen, we 
are compelled to applaud your spiritual resentment 
to the most glaring indignity. May your merit shine 
as conspicuous to the world in general, as it hath done 
to us, and may Heaven shower its choicest blessings 
upon you ! ' 

" To which he returned the following answer : — 



cc c 

CC ( 



Gentlemen, 

I am exceedingly obliged to you for your ap- 
probation of my conduct. Your address does me the 
highest honor. This kind testimony of your regard 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 181 

to me would have been an ample reward for ser- 
vices much greater than those I have had the power 
to perform. I return you, and each of you, gentle- 
men, my best acknowledgments for the spirit, alac- 
rity, and zeal, you have constantly shown in your sev- 
eral stations. I am unhappy to part with you. I 
leave the service, but I leave my heart with you. 
May God bless you, and give you success and safety, 
and make you the glorious instrument of saving our 
country.^ 

" After the officers had received Colonel Henry's 
kind answer to their address, they insisted upon his 
dining with them at the Raleigh tavern, before his 
departure ; and after dinner a number of them pro- 
posed escorting him out of town, but were prevented 
in their resolution by some uneasiness getting among 
the soldiery, who assembled in a tumultuous manner, 
and demanded their discharge, declaring their un- 
willingness to serve under any other commander; 
upon which Col. Henry found it necessary to stay a 
night longer in town ; Avhich he spent in visiting the 
several barracks, and used every argument in his 
power with the soldiery, to lay aside their imprudent 
resolution, and to continue in the service which he 
had quitted from motives in which his honor alone 
was concerned ; and that, although he was prevented 
from serving his country in a military capacity, yet 
his utmost abilities should be exerted for the real 
interest of the united colonies, in support of the 
glorious cause in which they have engaged. This, 
accompanied with the extraordinary exertions of Col. 
Christian and other officers present, happily pro- 
duced the desired effect, the soldiers reluctantly ac- 



182 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

quiescing; and we have now the pleasure to assure 
the public, that those brave fellows are now pretty 
well reconciled, and will spend the last drop of their 
blood in their country's defence." 

This is the man who has been sometimes branded 
as a turbulent, seditious, factious demagogue ! Had 
he been of this character, what an occasion was here 
to have provoked it to action ! This love for the man 
and the officer, and this resentment of the indignities 
to which he had been subjected, was not confined to 
the camp at Williamsburg; they pervaded the whole 
army, and were felt and expressed by the following 
address, signed by upwards of ninety officers at 
Kemp's landing and Suffolk (m Colonel Woodford's 
camp,) as well as at Williamsburg, and printed by 
their desire in Purdie's paper of the 22d March, 
1775 :— 



" Sir, 

" Deeply concerned for the good of our country, we 
sincerely lament the unhappy necessity of your res- 
ignation, and with all the warmth of affection assure 
you, that, w^hatever may have given rise to the in- 
dignity lately offered to you, we join with the general 
voice of the people, and think it our duty to make 
this public declaration of our high respect for your 
distinguished merit. To your vigilance and judg- 
ment as a senator this united continent bears ample 
testimony; while she prosecutes her steady opposi- 
tion to those destructive ministerial measures which 
your eloquence first pointed out and taught to resent, 
and your resolution led forward to resist. To your 
extensive popularity the service also is greatly in- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 183 

debted, for the expedition with which the troops 
were raised; and, while they were continued under 
your command, the firmness, candor, and politeness, 
which formed the complexion of your conduct toward 
them, obtained the signal approbation of the wise 
and virtuous, and will leave upon our minds the most 
grateful impression. Although retired from the im- 
mediate concerns of war, we solicit the continuance of 
your kindly attention. We know your attachment 
to the best of causes; we have the fullest confidence 
in your abilities, and in the rectitude of your views ; 
and however willing the envious may be to under- 
mine an established reputation, we trust the day will 
come, when justice shall prevail, and thereby secure 
you an honorable and happy return to the glorious 
employment of conducting our councils, and hazard- 
ing your life in the defence of your country. 

" With the most grateful sentiments of regard and 
esteem, we are, sir, very respectfully, your most 
obliged and obedient humble servants.'' 

From the contemporary publications in Mr. Pur- 
die's paper it is very clear that either the committee 
as a body, or, what is more probable, some individual 
or individuals of it, were still believed to have had a 
secret hand in planning and directing the series of 
indignities which had driven Mr. Henry from a mili- 
tary life. It would seem that the truly respectable 
and venerable chairman of that committee came in 
at the time for his full proportion of this censure, 
and that he smarted severely under it : this I infer, 
from a letter of his to Colonel Woodford some time 
afterward, in answer to one by which that gentleman 
had consulted him as to the propriety of his resigning 



184 LIFE OP PATRICK HENRY. 

his commission. After mving dissuaded him from 
this step by other topics, he proceeds thus : — " I am 
apprehensive that your resignation will be handled 
to your disadvantage, from a certain quarter, where 
all reputations are sacrificed, for the sake of one; 
what does it signify, that he resigned without any 
such cause, or assigning any reason at all ? it is not 
without example, that others should be censured for 
what he is applauded for." This acrimony, so un- 
usual from a man of Mr. Pendleton^s benevolence and 
courtesy could have been wrung from him only by the 
bitterest provocations; and renders it highly prob- 
able, that the numerous and enthusiastic admirers of 
Mr. Henry had implicated this gentleman deeply in 
the indignities which had recently been offered to 
their favorite. 

It demands, however, no uncommon measure of 
charity to believe, that what was imputed to envy at 
the time, proceeded, so far as Mr. Pendleton was 
concerned, from a single eye to the public good, and 
a sincere belief on his part, (an opinion in which he 
was by no means singular,) that Mr. Henry's inex- 
perience in military affairs made it unsafe to com- 
mit to his management the infancy of our war. The 
people required to be animated by success in the on- 
set ; and it was therefore very natural in the com- 
mittee of safety, on whom the responsibility for the 
management of the war devolved, to select, for the 
first enterprises, the most experienced commander. 
Mr. Pendleton was too virtuous a man, and too faith- 
ful a patriot, to yield consciously to any other motive 
of action than the public good. His country has 
fixed its seal upon his exalted character, and the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 186 

writer of these sketches is much more disposed to 
brighten than to efface the impression. 

The motives of Mr. Henry's resignation of his 
commission which have been stated, are very easily 
and clearly deducible from the papers of the day, and 
were expressly avowed by him to his confidential 
friend and brother-in-law, Colonel Meredith.* To 
other friends, however, he stated that he was the more 
reconciled to the necessity which had compelled him 
to resign, because he believed that he could perhaps 
serve the cause of his country more effectually in the 
public councils than in the field. f 

Immediately upon his resignation he was elected 
a delegate to the convention for the county of Han- 
over. The session of that body, which was now com- 
ing on, was pregnant with importance. Dunmore 
had abdicated the chair of government, and the royal 
amthority in the colony was seen and felt no longer, 
but in acts of hostility. The king had declared from 
his throne, that the colonists must be reduced by force 
to submit to the British claim of taxation ; and the 
colonists, on their part, had avowed that they never 

♦These are Colonel Meredith's words: — "P. H. in a 
communication to Col. M. stated his motives for resign- 
ing his commission as colonel. He conceived himself ne- 
glected, by younger officers having been put above him, 
and preferred to him; particularly in the affair of the 
Great Bridge, where he had wished to command; but Col- 
onel Woodford received that appointment. He disliked his 
being kept in and about Williamsburg, and not appointed 
to some Important post or expedition. He was thus in- 
duced to think he was neglected by those who had the 
power of appointment. He therefore resigned." 

t Judge Tyler, and Captain George Dabney. 



186 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

would submit to this prostration of their rights ; but, 
on the contrary, that they would hand down to their 
children the birthright of liberty which they had en- 
joyed, or perish in the attempt. On this quarrel arms 
had been taken up on both sides, and the appeal had 
been made to the God of battles. The war had as- 
sumed a regular and settled form, blood had been 
profusely shed in various parts of the continent and 
reconciliation had become hopeless. 

The people being thus abandoned by their king, 
put out of his protection, declared in a state of open 
rebellion, and treated as enemies, the social compact 
which had united the monarch with his subjects was 
at an end; the colonial constitution, which could be 
set and kept in motion only by the presence and 
agency of the king or his representative was of course 
dissolved ; and all the rights and powers of govern- 
ment reverted, of necessity, to their source, the peo- 
ple. These causes produced the convention. It was 
the organ by which the people chose to exercise the 
fundamental rights thus thrown back upon them, by 
the- dissolution of the regal government. It was the 
substitute for the whole government which had been 
withdrawn — legislative, executive, and judiciary. It 
represented the whole political power of the people; 
and had been expressly elected to take care of the 
republic. The means of accomplishing this object 
were left to themselves, without limitation or re- 
striction on the part of the people. Hitherto, while 
any hope of a restoration of the original government 
on just terms could be entertained, the convention 
had been satisfied with temporary expedients ; the 
first convention, however, had exercised the power of 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 187 

the people in their highest capacity, by adopting a 
species of constitution, and organizing a government 
under it; thus they erected an executive, under the 
name of a committee of safety, which the people rec- 
ognized as flowing directly from themselves. Be- 
fore the meeting of the convention of 17T6, however, 
it was seen and well understood on every hand, that 
the contest could not be maintained by the people, 
without the aid of regular government ; and that the 
political malady of which they complained, could 
be extirpated in no other way than by applying the 
knife to the root. The newspapers of the preceding 
year contain frequent suggestions of this kind ; the 
impression had now become universal ; and the pa- 
pers present specimens of explicit instructions from 
the people to their delegates to this effect. Thus in- 
structed in the sentiments of their constituents, and 
representing the people in their highest sovereign 
capacity, the convention met on the 6th of May, 1776, 
in the old capitol in the city of Williamsburg. Mr. 
Pendleton having been elected president, after hav- 
ing thanked the house for the honor done him, ad- 
dressed them with great solemnity, in the following 
terms : — " We are now met in general convention ac- 
cording to the ordinance for our election, at a time 
truly critical, when subjects of the most important 
and interesting nature require our serious attention. 
" The administration of justice, and almost all the 
powers of government, have now been suspended for 
near two years. It will become us to reflect whether 
we can longer sustain the great struggle we are mak- 
ing in this situation." Having then directed their 
attention to certain specific subjects which required 



188 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

attention, he concluded ms short, but impressive ad- 
dress, by exliorting the members to calmness, unan- 
imity, and diligence. 

On the fifteenth of May, Mr. Cary reported from 
the committee of the whole house on the state of the 
colony, the following preamble and resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted : — 

^' Forasmuch as all the endeavors of the United 
Colonies, by the most decent representations and pe- 
titions to the king and parliament of Great Britain, 
to restore peace and security to America under the 
British government, and a reunion with that people 
upon just and liberal terms, instead of a redress of 
grievances, have produced, from an imperious and 
vindictive administration, increased insult, oppres- 
sion, and a vigorous attempt to effect our total de- 
struction. By a late act, all these colonies are declared 
to be in rebellion, and out of the protection of the 
British crown ; our properties subjected to confisca- 
tion ; our jxiople, when captivated, compelled to join 
in the murder and plunder of their relations and 
countrymen ; and all former rapine and oppression 
of Americans declared legal and just. Fleets and 
armies are raised, and the aid of foreign troops en- 
gaged to assist these destructive purposes. The king's 
representative in this colony hath not only withheld 
all the powers of government from operating for our 
safety, but, having retired on board an armed ship, 
is carrying on a piratical and savage war against us, 
tempting our slaves, by every artifice, to resort to 
him, and training and employing them against their 
masters. In this state of extreme danger, we have no 
alternative left, but an abject submission to the will 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 189 

of those overbearing tyrants, or a total separation 
from the crown and government of Great Britain: 
uniting and exerting the strength of all America for 
defence, and forming alliances with foreign powers 
for commerce and aid in war. Wherefore, appealing 
to the Searcher of hearts or the sincerity of former 
declarations, expressing oiir desire to preserve the 
connection with that nation, and that w^e are driven 
from that inclination by their wicked councils, and 
the eternal laws of self-preservation, 

" Resolved, unanimously. That the delegates ap- 
pointed to represent this colony in general congress, 
be instructed to propose to that respectable body, to 

DECLAEE THE UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPEN- 
DENT STATES, absolved from all allegiance to, or de- 
pendance upon, the crown or parliament of Great 
Britain ; and that they give the assent of this colony 
to such declaration, and to whatever measures may be 
thought proper and necessary by the congress for 
forming foreign alliances, and a confederation of 
THE COLONIES, at such time, and in the manner, as 
to them shall seem best. Provided, that the power 
of forming government for, and the regulation of, 
the internal concerns of each colony, be left to the 
respective colonial legislatures. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That a committee be ap- 
pointed to prepare a declaration of rights, and 
such a plan of government as will be most likely to 
maintain peace and order in this colony, and secure 
substantial and equal liberty to the people." 

This measure was followed by the most lively dem- 
onstrations of joy. Purdie's paper of the 17th of 



J90 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

May, which immediatel^succeeds the annunciation 
of the resolutions, said : — 

" In consequence of the ahove resolutions, uni- 
versally regarded as the only door which will lead to 
safety and prosperity, some gentlemen made a hand- 
some collection for the purpose of treating the sol- 
diery, who next day were paraded in Waller's grove, 
before Brigadier-General Lewis, attended by the gen- 
tlemen of the committee of safety, the members of 
the general convention, the inhabitants of this city, 
&c,, &c. The resolutions being read aloud to the 
army, the following toasts were given, each of them 
accompanied by a discharge of the artillery and small 
arms, and the acclamations of all present : — 

'^ 1. The American Independent States. 

" 2. The grand Congress of the United States, and 
their respective legislatures. 

" 3. General Washington, and victory to the 
American arms. 

^^ The Union Flag of the American states waved 
upon the capitol during the whole of this ceremony ; 
which being ended, the soldiers partook of the refresh- 
ments prepared for them by the affection of their 
countrymen, and the evening concluded with illumi- 
nations, and other demonstrations of joy; every one 
seeming pleased that the domination of Great Britain 
was now at an end, so wickedly and tyrannically ex- 
ercised for these twelve or thirteen years past, not- 
withstanding our repeated prayers and remonstrances 
for redress." 



UFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 191 

Mr. Henry was a member of the committee, whicli 
consisted of thirty-four men, appointed to prepare 
the declaration and plan of government, called for by 
the last resolution. 

On Wednesday, the 12th of June following, that 
declaration of rights which stands prefixed to our 
statutes, was reported and adopted without a dissent- 
ing voice; as was also, on Saturday, the 29th of the 
same month, the present plan of our government.* 

* The striking similitude between the recital of wrongs 
prefixed to the constitution of Virginia, and that which 
was afterward prefixed to the Declaration of Independence 
of the United States, is of itself suflicient to establish the 
fact that they are from the same pen. But the Constitu- 
tion of Virginia preceded the Declaration of Independence 
by nearly a month; and was wholly composed and adopted 
while Mr. Jefferson is known to have been out of the state, 
attending the session of congress at Philadelphia. From 
these facts alone, a doubt might naturally arise whether 
he was, as he has always been reputed, the author of that 
celebrated instrument, the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence, or at least the recital of grievances which ushers 
it in; or whether this part of it, at least, had not been 
borrowed from the preamble to the constitution of Vir- 
ginia. To remove this doubt, it is proper to state, that 
there now exists among the archives of this state an orig- 
inal rough draught of a constitution for Virginia, in the 
handwriting of Mr. Jefferson, containing this identical pre- 
amble, and which was forwarded by him from Philadel- 
phia, to his friend Mr. Wythe, to be submitted to the com- 
mittee of the house of delegates. The body of the con- 
stitution is taken principally from a plan proposed by 
Mr. George Mason; and had been adopted by the committee 
before the arrival of Mr, Jefferson's plan: his preamble, 
however, was prefixed to the instrument; and some of th© 
modifications proposed by him introduced into ^e body 
of it. 



192 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

The salary of the governor to be appointed under 
the new constitution was immediately fixed by a reso- 
lution of the house at one thousand pounds per an- 
num ; and the house proceeded to elect forthwith the 
first republican governor for the commonwealth of 
Virginia. This was the touchstone of public favor. 
The office was of the first importance ; and the whole 
state was open to the choice of the house. The ques- 
tion was decided on the first ballot. The vote stood 
thus : — 

For Patrick Henry, jun. Esq. . . 60 
Thomas ISTelson, Esq. ... 45 
John Page, Esq 1 

Thereupon it was " Resolved, That the said Pat- 
rick Henry, jim. Esq., be governor of this common- 
wealth, to continue in that office until the end of the 
succeeding session of assembly after the last of March 
next; and that Mr. Mason, Mr. Henry Lee, Mr. 
Digges, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Dandridge, be a commit- 
tee to wait upon him, and notify such appointment.'' 

On Monday, the 1st of July, Mr. George Mason, 
of this committee, reported, that they had performed 
the duty assigned them, and that the governor had 
been pleased to return the following answer to the 
convention : — 

" To the Honorable the President and House of Con- 
vention: 

" Gentlemen, 

" The vote of this day, appointing me governor of 
the commonwealth, has been notified to me in the 
most polite and obliging manner, by George Mason, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. I93 

Henry Lee, Dudley Digges, John Blair, and Bar- 
tholomew Dandridge, esquires. 

" A sense of the high and unmerited honor con- 
ferred upon me by the convention, fills my heart with 
gratitude, which I trust my whole life will manifest. 
I take this earliest opportunity to express my thanks, 
which I wish to convey to you, gentlemen, in the 
strongest terms of acknowledgment. 

^^ When I reflect that the tyranny of the British 
king and parliament hath kindled a formidable war, 
now raging throughout this wide extended continent, 
and in the operations of which this commonwealth 
must bear so great a part ; and that, from the events 
of this war, the lasting happiness or misery of a great 
proportion of the human species will finally result; 
that, in order to preserve this commonwealth from 
anarchy, and its attendant ruin, and to give vigor to 
our councils, and effect to all our measures, govern- 
ment hath been necessarily assumed, and new-mod- 
elled; that it is exposed to numberless hazards, and 
perils, in its infantine state ; that it can never attain 
to maturity, or ripen into firmness, unless it is 
guarded by an affectionate assiduity, and managed 
by great abilities; I lament my want of talents; I 
feel my mind filled with anxiety and uneasiness, to 
find myself so unequal to the duties of that important 
station, to which I am called by the favor of my 
fellow-citizens at this truly critical conjuncture. The 
errors of my conduct shall be atoned for, so far as 
I am able, by unwearied endeavors to secure the free- 
dom and happiness of our common country. 

" I shall enter upon the duties of my ofiice, when- 
ever you, gentlemen, shall be pleased to direct ; rely- 

13 



194 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ing upon the known wisoom and virtue of your hon- 
orable house to supply my defects, and to give perma- 
nency and success to that system of government which 
you have formed, and which is so wisely calculated 
to secure equal liberty, and advance human happi- 
ness. 

" I have the honor to be, gentlemen, 
" Your most obedient and very humble servant, 

P. Henry, jun.'' 



a 



Mr. Henry was also immediately greeted with the 
following affectionate address, from the two regi- 
ments which he had recently commanded : — 

" To his excellency Patrick Henry, jun. Esq., gov- 
ernor of the commonwealth of Virginia: — The 
humble address of the first and second Virginia 
regiments : — 

" May it please your excellency, 

" Permit us, with the sincerest sentiments of re- 
spect and joy, to congratulate your excellency upon 
your unsolicited promotion to the highest honors a 
grateful people can bestow. 

" Uninfluenced by private ambition, regardless of 
sordid interest, you have uniformly pursued the gen- 
eral good of your country ; and have taught the world, 
that an ingenuous love of the rights of mankind, an 
inflexible resolution, and a steady perseverance in 
the practice of every private and public virtue, lead 
directly to preferment, and give the best title to the 
honors of our uncorrupted and vigorous state. 

" Once happy under your military command, we 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 195 

hope for more extensive blessings from your civil ad- 
ministration. 

'" Intrusted as your excellency is, in some measure, 
with the support of a young empire, our hearts are 
willing, and arms ready, to maintain your authority 
as chief magistrate ; happy that we have lived to see 
the day, when freedom and equal rights, established 
by the voice of the people, shall prevail through the 
land. We are, may it please your excellency, your 
excellency's most devoted and most obedient ser- 
vants.'^ 

To which he returned the following exquisite an- 
swer : — 

Gentlemen of the first and second Virginia regi- 
ments, 

" Your address does me the highest honor. Be 
pleased to accept my most cordial thanks for your 
favorable and kind sentiments of my principles and 
conduct. 

" The high appointment to which my fellow-citi- 
zens have called me, was, indeed, unmerited, unso- 
licited. I am, therefore, under increased obligations 
to promote the safety, dignity, and happiness of the 
commonwealth. 

'^ While the civil powers are employed in estab- 
lishing a system of government, liberal, equitable, in 
every part of which the genius of equal liberty 
breathes her blessed influence, to you is assigned the 
glorious task of saving, by your valor, all that is dear 
to mankind. Go on, gentlemen, to finish the great 
work you have so nobly and successfully begun. Con- 



196 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

vince the tyrants again, that they shall bleed, that 
America will bleed to her last drop, ere their wicked 
schemes find success. 

" The remembrance of my former connection with 
you shall ever be dear to me. I honor your profes- 
sion, I revere that patriot virtue, which, in your con- 
duct, hath produced cheerful obedience, exemplary 
courage, and contempt of hardship and danger. Be 
assured, gentlemen, I shall feel the highest pleasure 
in embracing every opportunity to contribute to your 
happiness and welfare ; and I trust the day will come, 
when I shall make one of those that will hail you 
among the triumphant deliverers of America. 
" I have the honor to be, gentlemen, 
" Your most obedient and very humble servant, 

" P. Henry, jun." * 

The first council appointed under the constitution 
were, John Page, Dudley Digges, John Taylor, John 
Blair, Benjamin Harrison, of Berkeley, Bartholo- 
mew Dandridge, Thomas Nelson, and Charles Car- 
ter, of Shirley, esquires. Mr. Nelson (the same gen- 
tleman who had received so honorable a vote as gov- 
ernor) declined the acceptance of the office, on ac- 
count of his age and infirmities; and his place was 
supplied by Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon. 

* When it is said that Mr. Henry was not successful as 
a writer the remark must be understood as applicable 
only to those extended compositions in which it was neces- 
sary to digest and arrange a mass of arguments with skill 
and effect, and to give them beauty as well as order. In 
his short effusions, when excited by strong feelings, he 
was sometimes very happy; of which the above answer 
is a very pleasing specimen. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 197 

The governor's palace, together with the out-build- 
ings belonging to it in Williamsburg, having, by a 
previous resolution, been appropriated as a public 
hospital, was, by a resolution of the first of July, 
restored to its original destination ; and the committee 
who had been appointed to notify the governor of 
his election, were now directed to inform him of the 
desire of the convention, that he would make the 
palace his place of residence. On the fifth of July 
the sum of one thousand pounds was directed by the 
house to be laid out in furniture for the palace, in- 
cluding the furniture already there, belonging to the 
country; and, on the same day, the governor and 
members of the privy council took their respective 
oaths of office, and entered at once upon the dis- 
charge of their constitutional duties. 



CHAPTEK Vn. 

GOVEKlSrOR or VIRGIN^IA. MEMBER OF LEGISLATURE. 
RESUMES PRACTICE OF LAW. 

17Y6-1788. 

Shortly after Mr. Henry's election as governor, 
Lord Dunmore was driven from Gwinn's island, and 
from the state, to return to it no more ; and Virginia 
was left in repose from every external enemy. 'No 
opportunity, therefore, was afforded to the governor 
to distinguish himself in the exercise of that im- 
portant constitutional power which created him the 
commander-in-chief of the forces of the state. Du- 
ties, however, of more importance than lustre, re- 
mained for the executive of the state : — keeping up 
the ardor of the commonwealth in the public cause ; 
furnishing and forwarding their quota of military 
supplies to the grand continental army ; awakening 
the spirit of the state to the importance of discipline, 
and preparing the militia for the effectual discharge 
of their routine of duty ; watching and crushing the 
intrigues of the tories who still infested the state, and 
went about clandestinely, preaching disaffection to 
the patriot cause, and submission to Great Britain; 
counteracting the schemes of speculating monopolists 
and extortioners, who sought to avail themselves of 

198 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 199 

the necessities of the times, and to grow rich by 
preying on the misfortunes of the people; in short, 
eradicating and removing those numerous moral dis- 
eases, which spring up with so much fecundity, and 
flourish so luxuriantly, amid the calamities of a revo- 
lution, and keeping the body politic pure and healthy 
in all its parts. The numerous and well-directed 
proclamations with which the papers of the day 
abound, attest the vigilance and energy with which 
these duties were performed. To enter upon a de- 
tail of them, would be to write the history of Virginia 
during this period, instead of the life of Mr. Henry. 
The fall of the year 1776 was one of the darkest 
and most dispiriting periods of the revolution.* The 
disaster at Long Island had occurred, by which a con- 
siderable portion of the American army had been cut 
otf — a garrison of between three and four thousand 
men had been taken at Fort Washington — and the 
American general, with the small remainder, dis- 
heartened, and in want of every kind of comfort, was 
retreating through the Jerseys f before an over- 

* The disasters of that fateful autumn may be catalogued 
as follows: — 

August 27, the battle of Long Island; August 29, 
Washington's Retreat across East River; September 15, 
the panic among the American troops at Kipp's Bay, and 
the American retreat from New York; September 16, the 
battle of Harlem Plains; September 20, the burning of 
New York; October 28, the battle of White Plains; Novem- 
ber 16, the surrender of Fort Washington; November 20, 
the abandonment of Fort Lee, followed by Washington's 
retreat across the Jerseys. 

t The New Jersey of later date was then called " the 
Jerseys," that is, East Jersey and West Jersey. On this 



200 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

whelming power which spread terror, desolation, and 
death, on every hand. This was the period of which 
Paine, in his Crisis, used that memorable expression: 
— " These are the times which try the souls of men ! " 
For a short time the courage of the country fell. 
Washington alone remained erect, and surveyed with 
godlike composure the storm that raged around him. 
Even the heroism of the Virginia legislature gave 
way; and, in a season of despair, the mad project of 
a dictator was seriously meditated. That Mr. Henry 
was thought of for this office, has been alleged, and 
is highly probable ; but that the project was suggested 
by him, or even received his countenance, I have met 
with no one who will venture to affirm. There is a 
tradition that Col. Archibald Cary, the speaker of 
the senate, was principally instrumental in crushing 
this project ; that meeting Col. Syme, the step-brother 
of Col. Henry, in the lobby of the house, he accosted 
him very fiercely in terms like these : — " I am told 
that your brother wishes to be dictator ; tell him 
from me, that the day of his appointment shall be the 
day of his death — for he shall feel my dagger in his 
heart before the sunset of that day : " and the tradi- 
tion adds, that Col. Syme, in great agitation, de- 
clared, " that if such a project existed, his brother 
had no hand in it, for that nothing could be more 
foreign to him, than to countenance any office which 
could endanger, in the most distant manner, the lib- 
erties of his country." 

The intrepidity and violence of Col. Cary^s char- 
constricted territory the war of the Revolution was chiefly 
fought out, for there were no less than thirty-eight battles 
fought on its soil. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 201 

acter renders the tradition probable ; but it furnishes 
no proof of Mr. Henry's implication in the scheme. 
It is most certain, that both himself and his friends 
have firmly and uniformly persisted in asserting his 
innocence ; and there seems to be neither candor nor 
justice in imputing to him, without evidence, a 
scheme which might just as well have originated in 
the assembly itself. It was not more than a month 
afterward, that congress actually did, with relation 
to General Washington, very nearly what the Vir- 
ginia legislature are said to have contemplated in re- 
gard to Mr. Henry; they invested him with powers 
very little short of dictatorial : yet no one ever sus- 
pected General Washington of having prompted the 
measure. Why then shall Mr. Henry be suspected ? 
Neither General Washington himself, nor any other 
patriot, had maintained the principles of the revolu- 
tion with more consistency and uniformity than Pat- 
rick Henry ; and it will certainly never satisfy a fair 
inquirer, to attempt to balance a suspicion, without 
the shadow of proof, against the whole course of a 
long and patriotic life. The charge, moreover, seems 
preposterous. What advantage could a rational man 
promise himself from the dictatorship of a single 
state, embarked with twelve other sovereigTi and in- 
dependent states, in one common cause ; a cause, too, 
now so well understood by the whole body of the 
American people, and in which all their souls were so 
intensely engaged? The man who was at the head 
of the armies of the imion, might have played the 
part of Caesar or Cromwell, had he possessed their 
wicked spirit j but what could the dictator of a single 



202 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

state do, and that, too, a state of firm and enligMened 
patriots? 

It is impossible to believe that the legislature them- 
selves could have entertained a doubt of Mr. Henry's 
innocence; since at the next annual election for gov- 
ernor, which took place on the 30th of May, 1777, 
he was re-elected unanimously ; the house being com- 
posed of nearly the same members, and the same Col- 
onel Gary being speaker of the senate. This honor- 
able proof of confidence, by those who best knew the 
whole case — who watched, with a scrutiny so severely 
jealous, the conduct of our prominent men — and 
among whom were some who derived no pleasure 
from the public honors of Mr, Henry — will be de- 
cisive of this question, with every man who is dis- 
passionately searching for the truth. 

This very honorable mark of the confidence of the 
legislature, in re-electing him unanimously to the 
office of governor, affected Mr. Henry most sensibly ; 
and to the committee who announced it to him, he 
gave the following answer: — 

" Gentlemen, 

" The signal honor conferred on me by the general 
assembly in their choice of me to be the governor of 
this commonwealth, demands my best acknowledg- 
ments, which I beg the favor of you to convey to 
them in the most acceptable manner. 

" I shall execute the duties of that high station, to 
which I am again called by the favor of my fellow- 
citizens, according to the best of my abilities, and I 
shall rely upon the candor and wisdom of the as- 
sembly, to excuse and supply my defects. The good 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 203 

of the commonwealtli shall be the only object of my 
pursuit, and I shall measure my happiness according 
to the success which shall attend my endeavors to 
establish the public liberty. I beg to be presented to 
the assembly ; and that they and you will be assured, 
that I am, with every sentiment of the highest regard, 
their and your most obedient and very humble ser- 
vant, 

" P. Heney." 

It was in the course of this year's administration 
of the government by Mr. Henry, that that memor- 
able plot wdiich disgraces our history, was formed to 
supplant General Washington. This is said to have 
proceeded from the glory which General Gates had 
gained by the capture of Burgoyne and his army at 
Saratoga, and was believed to have been suggested 
by General Gates himself. The plot is said to have 
been an extensive one, and to have embraced some 
of the members of congress, and many officers of the 
army. The high estimate which Mr. Henry had 
formed of the abilities of General Washington, while 
that illustrious man w^as comparatively unknown to 
his countrymen, has been already stated. This esti- 
mate, instead of having been lowered, had been con- 
firmed and raised by subsequent events. Mr. Henry 
was too cool and judicious an observer of events, to 
have imputed to the commander-in-chief the disasters 
of the autumn of 1776. His masterly retreat through 
the Jerseys, the brilliant strokes of generalship ex- 
hibited at Trenton and Princeton, and above all, that 
singular constancy of soul with which he braved ad- 
versity, had excited his grateful admiration, and es- 



204 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tablished Washington in his heart as one of the first 
of human beings. He not only admired him as a 
general, but revered him as a patriot, and loved him 
as a friend. Feeling for General Washington senti- 
ments like these, the reader may judge of the indig- 
nation and horror with which he read the following- 
anonymous letter, addressed to him by one of the con- 
spirators against that father of his country : — 

" Yorhtown, January 12tli^ 1778. 
^' Dear Sir, 

" The common danger of our country first brought 
you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the 
influence of your conversation and eloquence upon 
the opinions of this country, in the beginning of the 
present controversy. You first taught us to shake off 
our idolatrous attachment to royalty, and to oppose 
its encroachments upon our liberties with our very 
lives. By these means you saved us from ruin. The 
independence of America is the offspring of that lib- 
eral spirit of thinking and acting which followed the 
destruction of the sceptres of kings, and the mighty 
power of Great Britain. 

" But, sir, we have only passed the Red sea. A 
dreary wilderness is still before us, and unless a 
Moses or a Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we 
must perish before we reach the promised land. We 
have nothing to fear from our enemies on the way. 
General Howe, it is true, has taken Philadelphia; 
but he has only changed his prison. His dominions 
are bounded on all sides, by his out-sentries. Amer- 
ica can only be undone by herself. She looks up to 
her councils and arms for protection ; but alas ! what 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 205 

are thej? Her representation in congress dwindled 
to only twenty-one members — her Adams — ^her Wil- 
son — her Henry, are no more among them. Her 
councils weak — and partial remedies applied con- 
stantly for universal diseases. Her army — what is 
it ? a major-general belonging to it, called it a few 
days ago, in my hearing, a mob. Discipline unknown 
or wholly neglected. The quarter-master and com- 
missary's departments filled with idleness, ignorance, 
and peculation — our hospitals crowded with six thou- 
sand sick, but half provided with necessaries or ac- 
commodations, and more dying in them in one month, 
than perished in the field during the whole of the last 
campaign. The money depreciating, without any ef- 
fectual measures being taken to raise it — the country 
distracted with the Don Quixote attempts to regu- 
late the price of provisions — an artificial famine 
created by it, and a real one dreaded from it — the 
spirit of the people failing through a more intimate 
acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes — 
many submitting daily to General Howe — and more 
wishing to do it, only to avoid the calamities which 
threaten our country. But is our case desperate ? by 
no means. We have wisdom, virtue, and strength 
enough to save us, if they could be called into action. 
The northern army has shown us what Americans are 
capable of doing, with a general at their head. The 
spirit of the southern army is no way inferior to the 
spirit of the northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway, 
would in a few weeks render them an irresistible body 
of men. The last of the above officers has accepted 
of the new office of inspector-general of our army, in 
order to reform abuses ; but the remedy is only a pal- 



206 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

liative one. In one of hi^etters to a friend, he says, 
' a great and good God hath decreed America to be 
free — or the * * ^ * ^ * and weak coun- 
sellors, would have ruined her long ago.' You may 
rest assured of each of the facts related in this let- 
ter. The author of it is one of your Philadelphia 
friends. A hint of his name, if found out bv the 
handwriting, must not be mentioned to your most 
intimate friend. Even the letter must be thrown in 
the fire. But some of its contents ought to be made 
public, in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our 
country. I rely upon your prudence, and am, dear 
air, with my usual attachment to you, and to our be- 
loved independence, yours sincerely. 
" His Excellency P. Henry.^^ 

Mr. Henry did not hesitate a moment as to the 
course which it was proper for him to take with this 
perfidious letter: he enclosed it forthwith to General 
Washington, in the following frank and high-minded 
communication : — 

" Williamsburg, February 20, 1778. 
" Dear Sir, 

" You will, no doubt, be surprised at seeing the 
enclosed letter, in which the encomiums bestowed on 
me are as undeserved, as the censures aim*i at you 
are unjust. I am sorry there should be one man who 
counts himself my friend, who is not yours. 

^^ Perhaps I give you needless trouble in handing 
you this paper. The writer of it may be too insig- 
nificant to deservfe any notice. If I knew this to be 
the case, I should not have intruded on your time, 
which is so precious. But there may possibly be some 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENEY. 207 

scheme or party forming to your prejudice. The 
eii'-losed leads to such a suspicion. Believe me, sir, 
I have too high a sense of the obligations America has 
to you, to abet or countenance so unworthy a proceed- 
ing The most exalted merit hath ever been found to 
attract em-v. But I please myself with the hope 
that the same fortitude and greatness of mmd which 
have hitherto braved all the difficulties and dangers 
inseparable from your station, will rise superior to 
every attempt of the envious partisan. 

" I really cannot tell who is the writer of this 
letter, which not a little perplexes me. The hand- 
writing is altogether strange to me. 

" To give you the trouble of this gives me pain. 
It would suit' my inclination better to give you some 
assistance in the great business of the war But J. 
will not conceal any thing from you by which you 
mav be affected; for I really think, your personal 
welfare and the happiness of America are intimately 
connected. I beg you will be assured of that high 
regard and esteem, with which I ever am, dear sir, 
vour affectionate friend and very humble servant, 
•^ " P. Henry. 

" His Excellency General Washington." 

Not having received any answer, to this letter, and 
being filled with solicitude by the wicked conspiracy, 
he again wrote to General Washington, as follows:— 

" Williamsburg, March &th, 1T78. 

a Dear Sir 

"By an express which Colonel Finnie sent to 
camp, I enclosed you an anonymous letter, which I 



208 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

hope got safe to liand.#ff am anxious to hear some- 
thing that will serve to explain the strange affair, 
which I am now informed is taken up respecting you. 
Mr. Custis has just paid us a visit, and by him I 
learn sundry particulars concerning General Mifflin, 
that much surprised me. It is very hard to trace the 
schemes and windings of the enemies to America. I 
really thought that man its friend: however, I am 
too far from him to judge of his present temper. 

" Wliile you face the armed enemies of our liberty 
in the field, and by the favor of God, have been kept 
unhurt, I trust your country will never harbor in her 
bosom the miscreant who would ruin her best sup- 
porter. I wish not to flatter ; but when arts, un- 
worthy honest men, are used to defame and traduce 
you, I think it not amiss, but a duty, to assure you of 
that estimation in which the public hold you. Not 
that I think any testimony I can bear is necessary 
for your support, or private satisfaction ; for a bare 
recollection of what is past must give you sufficient 
pleasure in every circumstance of life. But I cannot 
help assuring you, on this occasion, of the high sense 
of gratitude which all ranks of men, in this your na- 
tive country, bear to you. It will give me sincere 
pleasure to manifest my regards, and render my best 
services to you or 3^ours. I do not like to make a 
parade of these things, and I know you are not fond 
of it : however, I hope the occasion wdll plead my 
excuse. 

" The assembly have, at length, empowered the 
executive here, to provide the Virginia troops serving 
with you with clothes, &c. I am making provision 
accordingly, and hope to do something toward it. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRT. 209 

Every possible assistance from government is af- 
forded the commissary of provisions, ^vhose depart- 
211 has not been attended to. It was taken up by 
re too late to do much. Indeed, the load of bn.ness 
devolved on me is too great to be managed well. A 
French ship mounting thirty gtms, that has been long 
chased by the English cruisers, has got into Carolina, 

as I hear last night. i ' „:^ 

« Wishing you all possible felicity, I am, my dear sir, 
" Your ever affectionate friend, 
" And very humble servant, 

" P. Heney. 

« His Excellency General Washington." 

In reply, Mr. Henry received shortly afterward 

the two following very cordial letters from the gen- 

eral : — 

" Valley Forge, March 27th, 1778. 

" Dear Sir 

" About 'eigiit days past, I was honored withyour 
favor of the 20th ultimo. Your friendship, sir, m 
transmitting me the anonymous letter you had re- 
ce veT lays me under the most grateful obligations; 
and, i any thing could give a still further claim to 
nw acknowledgments, it is the very polite and deli- 
cate terms in w^iich you have been pleased to make 

the communication. _ .v,„t T l,olrl 

" I have ever been happy m supposing that i held 
a place in your esteem, and the proof of it you have 
afforded on this occasion makes me peculiarly so 
The favorable light in which you hold me is tru y 
flattering; but I should feel much regret if I thought 
the happiness of America so intimately connected 



210 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 

with my personal welfa^, as you obligingly seem to 
consider it. All I can say is, that she has ever had, 
and I trust she ever will have, my honest exertions to 
promote her interest. I cannot hope that my ser- 
vices have been the best, but my heart tells me 
they have been the best that I could render. 

" That I may have erred in using the means in 
my power for accomplishing the objects of the ar- 
duous, exalted station with which I am honored, I 
cannot doubt ; nor do I wish my conduct to be ex- 
empted from the reprehension it may deserve. Error 
is the portion of humanity, and to censure it, whether 
committed by this or that public character, is the 
prerogative of freemen. 

^^ This is not the only secret, insidious attempt 
that has been made to wound my reputation. There 
have been others equally base, cruel, and ungenerous ; 
because conducted with as little frankness, and pro- 
ceeding from views perhaps, as personally interested. 

" I am, dear sir, &c. 

" Geo. Washington. 

" To his Excellency Patrich Henry, Esq.^ 
" Governor of Virginia,'^ 

" Camp, March 28th, 1778o 
" Dear Sir, 

" Just as I was about to close my letter of yester- 
day, your favor of the 5th instant came to hand. I 
can only thank you again in the language of the most 
undissembled gratitude for your friendship, and as- 
sure you, the indulgent disposition which Virginia 
in particular, and the states in general, entertain to- 
wards me, gives me the most sensible pleasure. Th© 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 211 

approbation of my country is what I wish ; and as far 
as my abilities and opportunity will permit, I hope I 
shall endeavor to deserve it. It is the highest reward 
to a feeling mind ; and happy are they who so con- 
duct themselves as to merit it. 

" The anon^^ous letter with which you were 
pleased to favor me, was written by ... so 
far as I can judge from the similitude of hands. . . 

" My caution to avoid every thing that could injure 
the service, prevented me from communicating, ex- 
cept to a very few of my friends, the intrigues of a 
faction which I knew was formed against me, since 
it might serve to publish our internal dissensions; 
but their own restless zeal to advance their views has 
too clearly betrayed them, and made concealment on 
my part fruitless. I cannot precisely mark the ex- 
tent of their views ; but it appeared, in general, that 
General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin -.of my 
reputation and influence. This I am authorized to 
say from undeniable facts in my own possession — 
from publications, the evident scope of which could 
not be mistaken — and from private detractions in- 
dustriously circulated. , it is conmionly sup- 
posed, bore the second part in the cabal ; and General 
Conway, I know, was a very active and malignant 
partisan ; but I have good reason to believe, that their 
machinations have recoiled most sensibly upon them- 
selves. 

"I am, dear sir, &e., 

" Geo. Washingtois-. 
" His Excellency Patriclc Henry, Esq., 
" Governor of Virginia/* 



21^ LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

The plot did recoil on its contrivers, and left 
General Washington more firmly established than 
ever in the confidence of his countrymen. 

At the spring session of 1778, Mr. Henry was 
again unanimously re-elected to the office of governor. 
Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Dandridge, and Mr. Page, the 
committee appointed to announce to him that event, 
received and reported the following answer: — • 

" Gentlemen, 

" The general assembly in again electing me gov- 
ernor of this commonwealth, have done me very sig- 
nal honor. I trust that their confidence thus con- 
tinued in me, will not be misplaced. 

" I beg you will be pleased, gentlemen, to present 
me to the general assembly, in terms of grateful 
acknowledgment for this fresh instance of their favor 
toward me ; and to assure them, that my best endeav- 
ors shall be used to promote the public good, in that 
station to which they have once more been pleased 
to call me." 

At this same session an act was passed, on account 
of which both Mr. Henry and the legislature have 
been, it is thought, improperly censured. I mean 
the act to attaint Josiah Philips. This man, in the 
summer of 1777, at the head of a gang of bandits, 
commenced a course of crimes in the counties of E^or- 
folk and Princess Anne, which spread terror and con- 
sternation on every hand. Availing himself of the 
disaffection which prevailed in that quarter, and tak- 
ing refuge from occasional pursuit in the fastnesses 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 213 

of tHe Dismal Swamp, he had carried on a species of 
war against the innocent and defenceless, at the bare 
mention of which humanity shudders. Scarcely a 
night passed without the shrieks of women and chil- 
dren, flying by the light of their own burning houses, 
from the assaults of these merciless wretches; and 
every day was marked by the desolation of some farm, 
by robberies on the highway, or the assassination of 
some individual whose patriotism had incurred the 
displeasure of this fierce and bloody leader of the 
bandits. Every attempt to take them had hitherto 
proved abortive; when, in May, 1778, the governor 
received the following letter from Col. John Wil- 
son: — 

'' Norfolk County, May 20th, 1778. 
" Honorable Sir, 

" I received your letter the 14th inst. of the 12th 
April, respecting the holding of the militia in read- 
iness, and my attention to the arms and accoutre- 
ments, which I shall endeavor to comply with as far 
as in my power : that much, however, may not be ex- 
pected from this county, I beg to observe, that the 
militia, of late, fail much in appearing at musters, 
submitting to the trifling fine of five shillings, which, 
they argue, they can afford to pay, by earning more 
at home; but I have reason to fear, through disaffec- 
tion. With such a set of men, it is impossible to 
render any Service to country or county. A few days 
since, hearing of the ravages committed by Philips 
and his notorious gang, I ordered fifty men to be 
raised out of four companies, consisting of upward 



214 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

of two hundred: of those only ten appeared, and it 
being at a private muster, I compelled twenty others 
into duty, putting them under the command of Capt. 
Josiah Wilson, who immediately marched after the 
insurgents; and that very night, one fourth of his 
men deserted. Capt. Wilson still pursued, but to no 
purpose : they were either taken to their secret places 
in the swamp, or concealed by their friends, so that 
no intelligence could be obtained. He then returned, 
his men declaring they could stay no longer, on ac- 
count of their crops. I considered, therefore, that 
rather than that they should wholly desert, it might 
be better to discharge them, and wait the coming of 
the E'ansemond militia, when I trusted something 
might be done: but of those men I can hear no tid- 
ings ; and unless they or some other better men do 
come, it will be out of my power to effect any thing 
with the militia of this country ; for such is their cow- 
ardly disposition, joined to their disaffection, that 
scarce a man, without being forced, can be raised to 
go after the outlyers. We have lost Capt. Wilson since 
his return : having some private business at a neigh- 
bor's, within a mile of his own house, he w^as fired on 
by four men concealed in the house, and wounded in 
such a manner that he died in a few hours ; and this 
will surely be the fate of a few others, if their re- 
quest of the removal of the relations and friends of 
those villains be not granted, which I am again 
pressed to solicit for, and in w^hich case neither as- 
sistance, pay, nor plunder, is expected ; conceiving 
that to distress their supporters is the only means 
by which we can root those wretches from us, and 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 216 

thereby establish peace and security to ourselves and 
families. 

" I am, with great respect, 
^^ Honorable sir, 

" Your most obedient humble servant, 
" John Wilson." 

" May 24. 
" A company of about fifty men are now come 
from l^ansemond ; but I am informed by the captain, 
that they will not be kept above two days, five having 
deserted already. 

" Jno. Wilson.'^ 
The governor immediately enclosed this letter to 
the house of delegates, with the following communi- 
cation : — 

" Tlie Honorable Benjamin Harrison^ Esq., Spealcer 
of the House of Delegates. 

" Williamshurg, May 27, 1778. 
" Sir, 

" I was always unwilling to trouble the general 
assembly with any thing that seemed of too little con- 
sequence for deliberation. In that view I have 
for some time considered the insurrection in Princess 
Anne and Norfolk. I have from time to time given 
orders to the commanding officers of those counties, 
to draw from the militia a force sufficient to quell it. 
These officers have often complained of the difficulty 
of the business, arising partly from the local cir- 
cumstances attending it, but chiefly from the back- 
wardness and even disaffection of the people. In 



216 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

order to remove the latter obstacle, I gave orders for 
one hundred men to be drawn out into this service, 
from Nansemond county; but I am sorry to say, the 
almost total want of discipline in that and too many 
other militias in the state, seems to forbid the hope of 
their doing much to effect. 

" Col. Wilson, whose letter I enclose, has several 
times given me to understand, that, in his opinion, 
the removal of such families as are in league w^th 
the insurgents, was a step absolutely necessary, and 
has desired me to give orders accordingly. But think- 
ing that the executive power is not competent to such 
a purpose, I must beg leave to submit the whole mat- 
ter to the assembly, who are the only judges how far 
the methods of proceeding directed by law are to b© 
dispensed with on this occasion. 

" A company of regulars, drawn from the several 
stations, will be ordered to co-operate with the militia, 
though indeed their scanty numbers will not permit 
it to be done without hazard. But I cannot help 
thinking this ought to be encountered ; for an appar- 
ent disposition to disturb the peace of this state has 
been manifested by these people during the whole 
course of the present war. It seems, therefore that 
no effort to crush these desperadoes should be spared. 

" My duty would no longer suffer me to withhold 
these several matters from the view of the general as- 
sembly, to whom I beg leave to refer them through 
you. 

" With great regard, 

" I have the honor to be, sir, 

" Your most obedient humble servant, 

"P. Henry." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 217 

This letter was communicated to the house on the 
day of its date, and was immediately referred to a 
committee of the whole house, on the state of the 
commonwealth. That committee was immediately 
formed; but not having time to go through the sub- 
ject, had leave to sit again. On the next day the 
house again resolved itself into a committee of the 
whole, and after some time spent therein, the speaker 
resumed the chair, and Mr. Carter reported on the 
subject of Philips, as follows : — 

" Information being received, that a certain 
Philips, with divers others, his associates and con- 
federates have levied war against this commonwealth 
within the counties of ISTorfolk and Princess Anne, 
committing murders, burning houses, wasting farms, 
and doing other acts of enormity in defiance of the 
officers of justice — 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee, that if the said Philips, his as- 
sociates, and confederates, do not render themselves 
to some officer, civil or military, within this common- 
wealth, on or before day of June, in this 
present year, such of them as fail so to do, ought to 
be attainted of high treason ; and that, in the mean- 
time, and before such render, it shall be lawful for 
any person, with or without orders, to pursue and 
slay, or otherwise to take and deliver to justice, the 
said Philips, his associates and confeder- 
ates.'^ 

Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Tyler, were the 
committee appointed to prepare and bring in a bill, 



218 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 

pursuant to this resolution, which was reported on 
the same day, and read the first time. On the two 
succeeding days it was read a second and third time ; 
and thus regularly passed through the forms of the 
lower house. It was communicated to the senate by 
Mr. Jefferson, on the 30th day of the month, and re- 
turned, passed by them, without amendment, on the 
first day of June, which was the last day of the ses- 
sion. 

Philips "was apprehended in the course of the au- 
tumn, and indicted by Mr. Edmund Randolph, at- 
torney-general, for highway-robbery, simply. On 
this charge he was tried at the October term of the 
general court, convicted, and executed: so that the 
act of attainder was never brought to bear upon him 
at aU. This is the whole case of Josiah Philips. 
The reader will judge whether Mr. Henry deserves 
censure for having communicated to the legislature 
the letter of Col. Wilson ; or whether that body acted 
with too much severity toward a wretch, who had 
not only set the laws of his country at defiance, but 
was waging a cruel and dastardly war upon men with- 
out arms, upon women and children ; and acting, not 
the part of a brave and open enemy but that of an 
enemy of the human family. 

Just at the close of Mr. Henry's administration, 
Virginia suffered an invasion of a few days, under 
the British officers Collin and Matthew. They seized 
Fort Kelson, near Norfolk, destroyed the naval stores 
at Gosport, burnt Suffolk, and disappeared before the 
militia could be rallied to chastise their insolence. 
This occurred in the month of May, 1779 ; and the 
facility and impunity with which the enterprise was 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 219 

accomplished, very probably suggested the more se- 
rious invasion of the state, which afterward took 
place under the traitor Arnold. 

It would seem, that a wish was entertained to re- 
elect Mr. Henry to the office of governor a fourth 
time, although the constitution declared him ineligi- 
ble after the third year. The impression seems to 
have been that his appointment for the first year, not 
having been made by delegates who had themselves 
been elected under the constitution, ought not to be 
counted as one of the constitutional years of service. 
Mr. Henry, however, had too scrupulous a respect 
for that instrument to accept the office, even in a 
doubtful case ; and, therefore, addressed the follow- 
ing letter to the speaker : — 

" May 2Sth, 1779. 
" Sir, 

'^ The term for which I had the honor to be elected 
governor by the late assembly being just about to 
expire, and the constitution, as I tliink, making me 
ineligible to that office, I take the liberty to com- 
municate to the assembly through you, sir, my in- 
tention to retire in four or five days. 

" I have thought it necessary to give this notifi- 
cation of my design, in order that the assembly may 
have the earliest opportunity of deliberating upon 
the choice of a successor to me in office. With great 
regard, 

" I have the honor to be, sir, 

" Your most obedient servant, 

" P. Hei^ey." 



220 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

Thus closed Mr. Helll^'s administration: and al- 
though he had not an opportunity of distinguishing 
it by any splendid achievements, it is honor enough 
that he had given universal satisfaction, and that he 
retired with a popularity confirmed and increased. 

It has been thought best not to break the chain of 
the narrative, as to his public character, by noticing 
the changes which had before this time occurred in 
his domestic relations. It may be proper to pause 
here for the purpose of supplying this omission. 

His wife, the partner of his youth, and the solace 
of his early adversities, had died in the year 1775, 
after having made him the father of six children. 
The anguish of this blow was mitigated by the cir- 
cumstance of her having been, for several years, in 
a state of ill health and of suffering, from which 
there was no hope of recovery ; and to her, therefore, 
death indeed ^^ came like a friend to relieve her from 
pain." 

Neither had the father lived to witness the promo- 
tion of his son to the highest honors of the republic. 
He had lived, however, long enough to enjoy the first 
bloom of his fame, and to see him the most celebrated 
and rising character in the state. He had died about 
the year 1770, and left behind him a name highly 
respectable for every private and social virtue. 

His uncle, for whom he seems to have had a strong 
affection, had died during his government, and in 
token of his affection and respect, had appointed him 
the executor of his will. 

His tender and indulgent mother still survived, 
and felt all that pure and exquisite delight, which the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 221 

r 

well-deserved honors of her son were calculated to 
inspire. 

After the death of his wife, Mr. Henry sold the 
farm called Scotch Town on which he had resided in 
Hanover, and purchased eight or ten thousand acres 
of valuable land in the county of Henry ; a county 
which had been erected during his government, and 
which had taken its name from him, as did after- 
wards its neighboring county of Patrich. In the 
year 1777, he married Dorothea, the daughter of 
Mr. Nathaniel W. Dandridge, with whom, after the 
resignation or expiration of his office, he removed to 
his newly-acquired estate, called Leatherwood, and 
there resumed the practice of the law. In the year 
1780, we find him again in the assembly, and one of 
the most active members in the house. 

During the winter session of this year, General 
Gates entered the city of Richmond from his south- 
ern campaign, where he had most wofully fulfilled 
General Lee's prediction."^ His total defeat at Cam- 
den, and a series of subsequent ill fortune, had left 
South Carolina completely in the hands of the vic- 
torious British ; and to increase his humiliation, 
congress had not only superseded him in that com- 
mand, by the substitution of General Greene, but had 
passed a resolution requiring the commander-in-chief 
to order a court of inquiry on his conduct. Under 
these accumulated disgraces, the unfortunate general 
entered the city of Richmond, when Mr. Henry 

* When Gen. Charles Lee heard of Gen. Gates's appoint- 
ment to the command of the southern army, he foretold 
that " his northern laurels would be turned into southern 
willows.'' 



222 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

moved a resolution whicn displays, in a most engag- 
ing light, the delicate and generous sensibility of his 
character ; it was as follows : — 

" Resolved, That a committee of four be appointed 
to wait on Majoi^-general Gates, and to assure him of 
the high regard and esteem of this house; that the 
remembrance of his former glorious services cannot 
be obliterated by any reverse of fortune; but that 
this house, ever mindful of his great merit, will omit 
no opportunity of testifying to the world, the grati- 
tude which, as a member of the American union, this 
country owes to him in his military character." 

" Richmond, December ^8th, 1780. 

" I shall ever remember with the utmost gratitude, 
the high honor this day done me by the honorable the 
house of delegates of Virginia. When engaged in 
the noble cause of freedom and the United States, I 
devoted myself entirely to the service of obtaining 
the great end of their union. That I have been once 
unfortunate is my great mortification ; but let the 
event of my future services be what they may, they 
will, as they always have been, be directed by the 
most faithful integrity, and animated by the truest 
zeal for the honor and interest of the United States. 

" Horatio Gates. '^ 

The spring and summer of the next year presented 
a period of even deeper darkness than the autumn of 
1776. Virginia had not, hitherto, been the theatre 
of hostile operations of a very serious character ; her 




Major-General Horatio Gates.— Page 222. 

Life of Patriclc Henry. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 223 

sufferings had been rather those of sympathy with her 
northern and southern sisters; but in this year the 
calamities of war were brought home to her own. 
bosom. Arnold's invasion took place in January: 
having carried his ravages as high up as Richmond 
and Westham, he retired to Portsmouth, where he 
rested till April, when General Philips succeeded to 
the command, and paid another visit of desolation to 
Manchester. In the next month came Lord Corn- 
wallis, with his victorious army from the south, 
driving every thing before him, and striking terror 
into whatsoever quarter he approached. Having 
formed a junction between his forces and those under 
the command of General Philips, there was no longer 
a military force in the state which had the power to 
resist him. The inferior body of republican troops, 
under Lafayette, moved before him, without the 
ability to strike a blow ; and Cornwallis roamed at 
pleasure, and without any apprehension, through the 
interior of the state. 

The seventh of May was the day appointed by law 
for the meeting of the assembly at Richmond. A few 
members met and took the oaths prescribed by law; 
but the number not being sufficient to proceed to 
business, the house was adjourned from day to day 
until the 10th ; when, upon information of the ap- 
proach of the enemy, they adjourned to the 24th, to 
meet at Charlottesville. It was not until the 28th, 
that a house was formed to proceed to business at 
this place; when Mr. Benjamin Harrison was elected 
speaker, and after making the usual acknowledg- 
ments for that honor, proceeded to address the fol- 



224: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

lowing remarks to tlio^oiise ; which I quote, not be- 
cause they are a very favorable specimen of Mr. Har- 
rison's oratory, but to show the panic which prevailed 
even among the first men of the country : — " The crit- 
ical and dangerous situation of our country leads me 
to hope, that my recommending it to you to despatch 
the weighty matters that will be under your consid- 
eration, with all convenient speed, will not be taken 
amiss; the people expect that effectual and decisive 
measures will be taken to rid them of an implacable 
enemy, that are now roaming at large in the very 
bowels of our country, and I have no doubt of your 
answering their expectations ; the mode of doing this 
may indeed be difficult : but it not being my province 
to point it out, I shall leave it to your wisdom, in. 
full confidence that every thing that is necessary for 
quieting the minds and dispelling the fears of our 
constituents, will be done." 

Eight days after this address, Mr. John Jouett, a 
citizen of the place, entered the town on horseback, 
at full speed, and announced the near and rapid 
approach of Tarlton,* at the head of three hundred 

* Colonel Banastre Tarlton (1754-1833), served under 
T ord Cornwallis in the war of the Revolution. While 
lie was undoubtedly both skilful and brave, he was also 
bloodthirsty and brutal, and pursued the methods of 
brigandage rather than of honorable warfare. His name 
was justly execrated by those who in Virginia suffered 
from the scourge of his cruelty. In his mother country, 
however, he was honored, and on his return to England 
he was elected to Parliament, and created K.C.B. His one 
literary venture was entitled " A history of the Cam- 
paigns of 1780-1781 in the Southern Provinces of North 
America," and the book is not without merit. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 225 

cavalry and mounted infantry. The house had just 
met, and was about to commence business, when the 
alarming cry of ^^ Tarlton and the British,'' was 
spread through the village ; and they had scarcely 
taken time to adjourn informally to Staunton, when 
Tarlton rushed like a thunderbolt into the village, in 
the confident expectation of seizing the whole assem- 
bly ; but the birds had flo^^al. He made seven of 
them only prisoners. The rest reassembled in Staun- 
ton, on the 7th of June. On the 10th of June, a false 
report of his approach produced another panic ; and 
the house having merely taken time to resolve that 
they would meet at the Warm Springs, if it should be 
found dangerous to meet in Staunton on the next 
day; and on their failure so to do, that the speaker 
might call a meeting, when and where he pleased, 
again broke up and dispersed. 

It was at this period of almost hopeless darkness, 
w^hen the energies of the state seemed to have been 
pretty nearly paralyzed, that the project of a dic- 
tator was again revived ; and it is again highly prob- 
able, that Mr. Ilcnry was the character who was in 
view for that office. Inquiries have been made of 
the surviving members of that assembly to ascertain 
whether the project could be traced to him, or whether 
he had any kind of participation in the proposal ; but 
those inquiries have resulted in a conviction of his 
entire innocence. The project came from other quar- 
ters, and seems to have been the last refuge of that 
general despair which for a short time pervaded the 
whole commonwealth. 

But this period of deep darkness was the harbinger 
of breaking day. The morning dawned with the arri- 



226 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

val of those aids from France, which Mr. Henry had 
so long ago predicted; and the sim of American in- 
dependence arose to set no more. He lived to witness 
the glorious issue of that revolution which his 
genius had set in motion; and (to repeat his own 
prophetic language, before the commencement of the 
struggle) ^^ to see America take her stand among the 
nations of the earth.'^ The contest closed with the 
capture of Cornwallis, at Little York, on the 19th 
of October, 1781 ; and thus the ball of the revolution 
rested in the same state in which it had received the 
first impulse. 

This enlightened and patriotic statesman, how- 
ever, was not yet inclined to indulge himself in that 
repose to which he was so well entitled. The consti- 
tution of the state had as yet been tried only in war, 
when the sense of common danger, and their ardor in 
the common cause, might of themselves have been 
sufficient to keep the people together, and to supply, 
in a good degree, the place of government. 

It was necessary to see how the instrument would 
work in peace ; what assurance it gave of public order 
and well-regulated liberty ; or whether any, and what 
defects in the plan required amendment. 

There were other considerations, too, which called 
loudly for attention. The war had left the country 
in a most deplorable situation ; poor and in debt ; its 
warriors unrequited ; its finances wholly deranged ; 
its jurisprudence unsettled; and all its faculties 
weak, disordered, and exhausted. This was no time 
for the patriot to quit his post. It demanded all his 
vigilance to guard the infant republic against the 
machinations of its enemies, both abroad and at 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 227 

home; it required all his care and all his skill to 
heal the numerous disorders which had flowed from 
the war ; to nurse the new-born nation into health 
and strength ; to develop its resources, moral and 
physical; and thus to give security and permanence 
to its liberties. 

With the view of contributing his aid to those great 
objects, Mr. Henry still continued to represent the 
county of his residence, in the legislature of the state, 
and controlled the proceedings of that body, with a 
weight of personal authority, and a power of elo- 
quence, which it was extremely difficult, and indeed 
almost impossible, to resist. A striking evidence of 
this power Avas given, immediately on the close of the 
revolution, in his advocating the return of the British 
refugees. The measure was most vehemently op- 
posed. There was no class of human beings against 
whom such violent and deep-rooted prejudices ex- 
isted. The name of ^^ British tory " was of itself 
enough, at that period, to throw almost any company 
in Virginia into flames, and was pretty generally a 
signal for a coat of tar and feathers ; a signal which 
was not very often disobeyed. Mr. Henry's propo- 
sition in favor of a class of people so odious could not 
fail to excite the strongest surprise ; and was, at first, 
received with a repugnance apparently insuperable. 

The late Judge Tyler, then the speaker of the 
house, opposed it in the committee of the whole, with 
great warmth ; and in the course of the discussion, 
turning from the chairman to Mr. Henry, he asked 
him, " how lie, above all other men, could think of 
inviting into his family, an enemy, from whose in- 
sults and injuries he had suffered so severely ? " To 



228 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

this Mr. Henry answered, that ^^ the personal feelings 
of a politician ought not to be permitted to enter those 
walls. The question (he said) was a national one, 
and in deciding it, if they acted wisely, nothing 
wouki be regarded but the interest of the nation. On 
the altar of his country's good he was willing to sac- 
rifice all personal resentments, all private wrongs — 
and he flattered himself, that he was not the only man 
in the house who was capable of making such a sac- 
rifice. We have, sir, (said he,) an extensive country, 
without ijopulation — what can be a more obvious pol- 
icy than that this country ought to be peopled ? — peo- 
ple, sir, form the strength, and constitute the wealth 
of a nation. I want to see our vast forests filled up 
by some process a little more speedy than the ordinary 
course of nature. I wish to see these states rapidly 
ascending to that rank which their natural advan- 
tages authorize them to hold among the nations of the 
earth. Cast your eyes, sir, over this extensive coun- 
try — observe the salubrity of your climate ; the va- 
riety and fertility of your soil — and see that soil in- 
tersected in every quarter by bold, navigable streams, 
flowing to the east and to the west, as if the finger of 
Heaven were marking out the course of your settle- 
ments, inviting you to enterprise, and pointing the 
way to wealth. Sir, you are destined, at some time 
or other, to become a great agricultural and commer- 
cial people ; the only question is, whether you choose 
to reach this point by slow gradations, and at some 
distant period — lingering on through a long and 
sickly minority — subjected meanwhile, to the machi- 
nations, insults, and oppressions of enemies, foreign 
and domestic, without sufficient strength to resist and 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 229 

chastise them — or whether you choose rather to rush 
at once, as it were, to the full enjoyment of those high 
destinies, and be able to cope, single-handed, with 
the proudest oppressor of the old world. " If you pre- 
fer the latter course, as I trust you do, encourage em- 
igration — encourage the husbandmen, the mechanics, 
the merchants of the old world, to come and settle in 
this land of promise — make it the home of the skilful, 
the industrious, the fortunate and happy, as well as 
the asylum of the distressed — fill up the measure of 
your population as speedily as you can, by the means 
which Heaven hath placed in your power — and I 
venture to prophesy there are those now living, who 
will see this favored land amongst the most powerful 
on earth — able, sir, to take care of herself, without 
resorting to that policy which is always so dangerous, 
though sometimes unavoidable, of calling in foreign 
aid. Yes, sir — they will see her great in arts and in 
arms — her golden harvests waving over fields of un- 
measurable extent — her commerce penetrating the 
most distant seas, and her cannon silencing the vain 
boasts of those who now proudly affect to rule the 
waves. But, sir, you must have men — you cannot get 
along without them— those heavy forests of valuable 
timber, under which your lands are groaning, must be 
cleared away — those vast riches which cover the face 
of your soil, as well as those which lie hid in its 
bosom, are to be developed and gathered only by the 
skill and enterprise of men — ^your timber, sir, must 
be worked up into ships, to transport the productions 
of the soil from which it has been cleared — then, you 
must have commercial men and commercial capital, 
to take off your productions, and find the best mar- 



230 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

kets for them abroad — ^yonr great want, sir, is the 
want of men ; and these yon must have, and will have 
speedily, if you are wise. 

^' Do you ask how you are to get them ? — Open 
your doors, sir, and they will come in — the popula- 
tion of the old world is full to overflowing — that pop- 
ulation is ground, too, by the oppressions of the gov- 
ernments under which they live. Sir, they are al- 
ready standing on tiptoe upon their native shores and 
looking to your coasts with a wishful and longing eye 
— they see here a land blessed with natural and po- 
litical advantages, which are not equalled by those 
of any other country upon earth — a land on which 
a gracious Providence hath emptied the horn of abun- 
dance — a land over Avhich peace hath now stretched 
forth her white wings, and where content and plenty 
lie down at every door ! Sir, they see something still 
more attractive than all this — they see a land in 
which liberty hath taken up her abode — that liberty, 
whom they had considered as a fabled goddess, exist- 
ing only in the fancies of poets — they see her here a 
real divinity — ^her altars rising on every hand 
throughout these happy states — her glories chanted 
by three millions of tongues — and the whole region 
smiling under her blessed influence. Sir, let but this 
our celestial goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair 
hand toward the people of the old world — tell them 
to come, and bid them welcome — and you will see 
them pouring in from the north, from the south, 
from the east, and from the Avest — yovir wildernesses 
will be cleared and settled — ^your deserts will smile 
— ^your ranks will be filled — and you will soon be in a 
condition to defy the powers of any adversary. 




Oh "f* 

CO H^ 



5S ^ 






e8 



^ 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 231 

"But gentlemen object to any accession from 
Great Britain — and particularly to the return of the 
British refugees. Sir, I feel no objection to the 
return of those deluded people — they have, to be sure, 
mistaken their own interests most wofully, and most 
wofully have they suffered the punishment due to 
their offences. But the relations which we bear to 
them and to their native country are now changed — 
their king hath acknowledged our independence — 
the quarrel is over — peace hath returned, and found 
us a free people. Let us have the magnanimity, sir, 
to lay aside our antipathies and prejudices, and con- 
sider the subject in a political light. Those are an 
enterprising, moneyed people — they will be service- 
able in taking off the surplus produce of our lands, 
and supplying us with necessaries, during the infant 
state of our manufactures. Even if they be inimical 
to us in point of feeling and principle, I can see no 
objection, in a political view, in making them tribu- 
tary to our advantage. And as I have no prejudices 
to prevent my making this use of them, so, sir, I 
have no fear of any mischief that they can do us. 
Afraid of them! — what, sir," — said he, rising to one 
of his loftiest attitudes, and assuming a look of the 
most indignant and sovereign contempt, — " shall we, 
who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, now 
be afraid of his lulielps? ^^ 

The force of this figure, and the energy with which 
it was brought out, are said to have produced an 
effect that made the house start simultaneously. It 
continued to be admired, long after the occasion 
which gave it birth had passed away, and was fre- 
quently quoted by Mr. Wythe to his students, while 



232 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

professor of law at William and Mary college, as a 
happy specimen of those valuable figures, which unite 
the beauty of decoration with the effect of argument. 

Judge Tyler, to whom I am indebted for the pre- 
ceding incident, has favored me also with the follow- 
ing one, which I shall give in his own words : — 

" Mr. Henry espoused the measure which took off 
the restraints on British commerce, before any treaty 
was entered into ; in which I opposed him on this 
ground, that that measure would expel from this 
country the trade of every other nation, on account 
of our habits, language, and the manner of conducting 
business on credit between us and them : also on this 
ground, in addition to the above, that if we changed 
the then current of commerce, we should drive away 
all competition, and never perhaps should regain it, 
(which has literally happened). In reply to these 
observations, he was beyond all expression eloquent 
and sublime. After painting the distresses of the 
people, struggling through a perilous war, cut off 
from commerce so long that they were naked, and un- 
clothed, he concluded with a figure, or rather with a 
series of figures, which I shall never forget, because, 
beautiful as they were in themselves, their effect was 
heightened beyond all description, by the manner in 
which he acted what he spoke : — ^ Why,' said he, 
^ should we fetter commerce ? If a man is in chains, 
he droops and bows to the earth, for his spirits are 
broken, (looking sorrowfully at his feet:) but let him 
twist the fetters from his legs, and he will stand 
erect/ — straightening himself, and assuming a look 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 233 

of proud defiance. — ^ Fetter not commerce, sir — let 
her be as free as air — she will range the whole crea- 
tion, and return on the wings of the four winds of 
heaven, to bless the land with plenty.' 

In the fall session of 1784, Mr. Henry proposed 
and advocated several measures which deserve par- 
ticular mention : — one of them, on account of the 
originality and boldness of mind from which it pro- 
ceeded ; and others, because they have sometimes been 
made the subjects of censure against him. The first 
respects the Indians. Those unfortunate beings, ene- 
mies of the white people, whom they regarded as 
lawless intruders into a country set apart for them- 
selves by the Great Spirit, had continued, from their 
first landing, to harass the white settlements, and 
hang, like a pestilence on their frontier, as it ad- 
vanced itself toward the west. The story of their 
accumulated wrongs, handed down by tradition from 
father to son, and emblazoned with all the colors of 
Indian oratory, had kept their Avar-fires smoking 
from age to age, and the hatchet and scalping-knife 
perpetually bright. They had long since abandoned 
the hope of being able, by their single strength, to 
exterminate the usurpers of their soil ; but either 
from the spirit of habitual and deadly revenge, or 
from the policy of checking, as far as they could, the 
perpetually extending encroachments of the white 
men, they had waged an unremitting war upon their 
borders, marked with horrors which eclipse the wild- 
est fictions of the legendary tale.* These people, too, 

* The stories of these border skirmishes, which yet live 
in the traditions of the west, are highly wprthy of coUec- 



234 I^IFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

besides the miscliiefs to which they were prompted by 
their own feelings and habits, were an ever-ready and 
a most terrific scourge, in the hands of any enemy 
with wdiom this country might be at variance. Dun- 
more, although thanked at the time for his services, 
was afterward believed, by the house of burgesses, to 
have made use of them in the years 1774-5, in order 
to draw off the attention of the colonists from the 
usurpation of the British court : and, in the recent 
war of the revolution, that merciless enemy had been 
again let loose upon our frontier, with all the terrors 
of savage warfare. The return of peace with Britain 
had given us but a short respite from their hostilities. 
I perceive, by the journal of the house of delegates, 
that on the 5th of November, 1784, it was, on the 
motion of Mr. Henry, 

" Resolved, That the governor, with the advice of 
council, be requested to adopt such measures as may 

tion. They exhibit scenes of craft, boldness, and feroc- 
ity, on the part of the savages, and of heroic and desperate 
defence by the semi-barbarous men, women, and children, 
who were the objects of these attacks, which mark the 
characters of both sides in a most interesting manner. 
Those tales of the long, obstinate, and bloody defence of 
log-cabins; of the almost incredible achievements of women 
and little boys; of the sometimes total and sometimes par- 
tial havoc of families; of the captivity, tortures, and 
death of some; and the miraculous escape, wanderings, 
and preservation of others — would form a book of interest. 
They would furnish the subject of many a novel, drama, 
and painting. The adventure of Captain Smith and Poca- 
hontas, if you put aside the dignity of their characters, 
is cold and tame, when compared with some which are re- 
lated among the western inhabitants of this state. 



- LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 235 

be found necessary to avert the danger of hostilities 
with the Indians, and to incline them to treat with 
the commissioners of congress; and for that purpose 
to draw on the treasury for any sum of money not 
exceeding one thousand pounds, which shall stand 
charged to the account of money issued for the con- 
tingent charges of government/' 

A treaty with the Indians, however, was well 
known to be a miserable expedient; the benefits of 
which would scarcely last as long as the ceremonies 
that produced it. The reflecting politician could not 
help seeing, that, in order to remove the annoyance 
ejffectually, the remedy must go to the root of the dis- 
ease — that that inveterate and fatal enmity which 
rankled in the hearts of the Indians must be eradi- 
cated — that a common interest and congenial feelings 
between them and their white neighbors must be 
created — and humanity and civilization gradually 
superinduced upon the Indian character. The diffi- 
culty lay in devising a mode to effect these objects. 
The white people who inhabited the frontier, from 
the constant state of warfare in which they lived with 
the Indians, had imbibed much of their character; 
and learned to delight so highly in scenes of crafty, 
bloody, and desperate conflict, that they as often gave 
as they received the provocation to hostilities. 

Hunting, which was their occupation, became dull 
and tiresome, unless diversified occasionally by the 
more animated and piquant amusement of an Indian 
skirmish ; just as " the blood more stirs to rouse a 
lion than to start a hare." The policy, therefore, 
which was to produce the deep and beneficial change 



236 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

that was meditated, raus^ave respect to both sides, 
and be calculated to implant kind affections in 
bosoms which at present were filled only with re- 
ciprocal and deadly hatred. The remedy suggested 
by Mr. Henry was to encourage marriages between 
these conterminous enemies; and having succeeded, 
in the committee of the whole house, in procuring the 
report of a resolution to this effect, he prepared a 
bill which he is said to have advocated with irresisti- 
ble earnestness and eloquence. The inducements held 
out by this bill, to promote these marriages, were, pe- 
cuniary bounties to be given on the certificate of mar- 
riage, and to be repeated at the birth of each child ; 
exemption from taxes ; and the free use of a seminary 
of learning, to be erected for the purpose, and sup- 
ported at the expense of the state. 

While Mr. Henry continued a member of the 
house, the progress of this bill was unimpeded. It 
passed through a first and second reading, and was 
engrossed for its final passage, when his election as 
governor took effect, and displaced him from the 
floor : on the third clay after which event the bill was 
read a third time and rejected. 

It were a useless waste of time to speculate on the 
probable effects of this measure, had it succeeded. It 
is considered, however, as indicative of great human- 
ity of character, and as marked with great boldness, 
if not soundness of policy. Mr. Henry is said to have 
been extremely sanguine as to its efficacy, and to have 
supported it by some of the highest displays of his 
eloquence. 

The other two measures to which I have adverted, 
as having been patronized by Mr. Henry, at this 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 237 

session, were, the incorporation of the Protestant 
Episcopal church, and what is called " a general as- 
sessment." These measures have been frequently 
stated, in conversation, as proofs of a leaning on the 
part of Mr. Henry, toward an established church, and 
that, too, the aristocratic church of England. To 
test the justness of this charge, the journals of the 
house of delegates have been examined, and this is 
the result of the evidence which they furnish : on the 
I7th of JSTovember, 1784, Mr. Matthews reported 
from the committee of the whole house, on the state 
of the commonwealth, the following resolution : — 

^^ Resolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee, that acts ought to pass for the incorporation 
of all socieiies of the Christian religion^ which may 
apply for the same.^ 



77 



The ays and noes having been called for, on the 
passage of this resolution, were ays, sixty-two, noes, 
twenty-three; Mr. Henry being with the majority. 

The principle being thus established in relation to 
all religious societies, which should desire a legal exis- 
tence for the benefit of acquiring and holding prop- 
erty to the use of their respective churches, leave was 
given, on the same day, to bring in a bill to incor- 
porate the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal church, 
which had brought itself within that principle by 
having applied for an act of incorporation ; and Mr. 
Henry was one of the committee * appointed to bring 

♦The chairman was Mr. Carter H. Harrison; the rest 
of the committee were, Mr. Henry, Mr. Thomas Smith, 
Mr. William Anderson, and Mr. Tazewell. 



238 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

in that bill. How a measure which holds out to all 
religious societies, equally, the same benefit, can be 
charged with partiality, because accepted by one only, 
it is not very easy to discern. 

The other measure, the general assessment, pro- 
ceeded from a nu.mber of petitions from different 
counties of the commonwealth, which prayed, that as 
all persons enjoyed the benefits of religion, all might 
be required to contribute to the expense of supporting 
some form of worship or other. The committee to 
whom these petitions were referred, reported a bill 
whose preamble sets forth the grounds of the pro- 
ceeding, and furnishes a conclusive refutation of the 
charge of partiality to any particular form of re- 
ligion. The bill is entitled, " A bill, establishing a 
provision for teachers of the Christian religion ; " 
and its preamble is in the following words : — 
" Whereas the general diffusion of Christian knowl- 
edge hath a natural tendency to correct the morals 
of men, restrain their vices, and preserve the peace 
of society ; which cannot be effected without a com- 
petent provision for learned teachers who may be 
thereby enabled to devote their time and attention to 
the duty of instructing such citizens as, from their 
circumstances and want of education, cannot other- 
w^ise attain such knowledge ; and it is judged such 
provision may be made by the legislature, without 
counteracting the liberal principle heretofore adopted 
and intended to be preserved, by abolishing all dis- 
tinctions of pre-eminence amongst the different so- 
cieties or communities of Christians." 

The provisions of the bill are in the strictest con- 
formity with the principles announced in the close of 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 239 

the preamble; the persons subject to taxes are re- 
quired, at the time of giving in a list of their tithe- 
ables, to declare to what particular religious society 
they chose to appropriate the sums assessed upon 
them, respectively ; and, in the event of their failing 
or declining to specify any appropriation, the sums 
thus circumstanced are directed to be paid to the 
treasurer, and applied by the general assembly to the 
encouragement of seminaries of learning, in the coun- 
ties where such sums shall arise. If there be any evi- 
dence of a leaning toward any particular religious 
sect in this bill, or any indication of a desire for an 
established church, the author of these sketches has 
not been able to discover them. Mr. Henry was a 
sincere believer in the Christian religion, and had 
a strong desire for the successful propagation of the 
gospel, but there was no taint of bigotry or intoler- 
ance in his sentiments ; nor have I been able to learn 
that he had a punctilious preference for any particu- 
lar form of worship. His faith regarded the vital 
spirit of the gospel, and busied itself not at all with 
external ceremonies or controverted tenets. 

Both these bills, '^ for incorporating the Protestant 
Episcopal church,'' and " establishing a provision for 
teachers of the Christian religion," were reported af- 
ter Mr. Henry had ceased to be a member of the 
house ; but the resolutions on which they were founded 
were adopted while he continued a member, and had 
his warmest support. The first bill passed into a law ; 
the last was rejected by a small majority, on the third 
reading. 

The same session afforded Mr. Henry a double op- 
portunity of gratifying, in the most exquisite man- 



240 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ner, that naturally bland and courteous spirit, which 
so eminently distinguished his character. General 
Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, both of 
them objects of the warmest love and gratitude to 
this country, visited Richmond in November. They 
arrived on different days. The general entered the 
city on the 15th, and the journal of the next morning 
exhibits the following order : — 

" The house being informed of the arrival of Gen- 
eral Washington in this city. Resolved^ nemine con- 
tradicente,^ that as a mark of their reverence for his 
character, and affection for his person, a committee of 
^YQ members be appointed to wait upon him, with the 
respectful regard of this house, to express to him the 
satisfaction they feel in the opportunity afforded by 
his presence of offering this tribute to his merits ; and 
to assure him, that as they not only retain the most 
lasting impressions of the transcendent services ren- 
dered in his late public character, but have, since his 
return to private life, experienced proofs that no 
change of situation can turn his thoughts from the 
welfare of his country, so his happiness can never 
cease to be an object of their most devout wishes and 
fervent supplications. 

" And a committee was appointed of Mr. Henry, 
Mr. Jones (of King George,) Mr. Madison, Mr. 
Carter H. Harrison and Mr. Carrington.'' 

To this spontaneous and unanimous burst of feel- 
ing, General Washington returned an answer marked 

* Without dissent. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 24l 

tvith his characteristic modesty, and full of the most 
touching sensibility. It is worthy of insertion, as 
showing, in a soft and winning light, a character with 
which we are apt to associate only the images of a 
dignity and reserve, approaching to sternness. " Gen- 
tlemen," said he, ^'my sensibility is deeply affected by 
this distinguished mark of the affectionate regard of 
your honorable house. I lament, on this occasion, 
the want of those powers which would enable me to 
do justice to my feelings, and shall rely upon your 
indulgent report to supply the defect ; at the same 
time, I pray you to present for me, the strongest 
assurances of unalterable affection and gratitude, 
for this last pleasing and flattering attention of my 
country/' 

The marquis, who had been to France since the 
close of hostilities, made his entree on the morning 
of the 17th of November ; and the house, immediately 
on its meeting, came to the following resolution : — 

" The house being informed of the arrival, this 
morning, of the Marquis de la Fayette in this city, 
Resolved, nemine contradicente, that a committee of 
five be appointed, to present to him the affectionate 
respects of this house, to signify to him their sensi- 
bility to the pleasing proof given by this visit to the 
United States, and to this state in particular, that 
the benevolent and honorable sentiments which or- 
iginally prompted him to embark in the hazardous 
fortunes of America, still render the prosperity of its 
affairs an object of his attention and regard j and to 



242 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

assure him, that thej^^annot review the scenes of 
blood and danger through which we have arrived at 
the blessings of peace, without being touched, in the 
most lively manner, with the recollection, not only 
of the invaluable services for which the United States 
at large are so much indebted to him, but of that con- 
spicuous display of cool intrepidity and wise con- 
duct, during his command in the campaign of 1781, 
which, by having so essentially served this state in 
particular, have given him so just a title to its par- 
ticular acknowledgments. That, impressed as they 
thus are with the distinguished lustre of his char- 
acter, they cannot form a wish more suitable, than 
that the lesson it affords may inspire all those whose 
noble minds may emulate his glory, to pursue it by 
means equally auspicious to the interests of human- 
ity. 

^^ And a committee was appointed of Mr. Henry, 
Mr. Madison, Mr. Jones, (of King George,) Mr. 
Matthews, and Mr. Brent.'' 

To this address, the marquis made the following 
polite and feeling answer : — 

" Gentlemen, 

" With the most respectful thanks to yoar honor- 
able body, permit me to acknowledge, not only the 
flattering favor they are now pleased to confer, but 
also the constant partiality, and unbounded confi- 
dence of this state, which, in trying times, I have so 
happily experienced. Through the continent, gen- 
tlemen, it is most pleasing for me to join with my 
friends in mutual congratulations j and I need not 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 243 

add what my sentiments must be in Virginia, where 
step by step have I so keenly felt for her distress, 
so eagerly enjoyed her recovery. Our armed force 
was obliged to retreat, but your patriotic hearts stood 
unshaken ; and, while either at that period, or in our 
better hours, my obligations to you are numberless; 
I am happy in this opportunity to observe, that the 
excellent services of your militia were continued with 
unparalleled steadiness. Impressed with the neces- 
sity of federal union, I was the more pleased in the 
command of an army so peculiarly federal; as Vir- 
ginia herself freely bled in defence of her sister 
states. 

" In my wishes to this commonwealth, gentlemen, 
I will persevere with the same zeal, that once and 
for ever has devoted me to her. May her fertile soil 
rapidly increase her wealth — may all the waters 
which so luxuriantly flow within her limits, be happy 
channels of the most extensive trade — and may she 
in her wisdom, and the enjoyment of prosperity con- 
tinue to give the world unquestionable proofs of her 
philanthropy and her regard for the liberties of all 
mankind. 

^' La Fayette." 

Time had now brought forward several new politi- 
cal characters, who had risen high in the public es- 
timation : but Mr. Henry and Mr. Lee still kept their 
ground far in the van. A gentleman of great dis- 
tinction, who began his public career in 1783, found 
both these eminent men in the house of delegates, and 
heard them for the first time in debate: he served 
through the two sessions of that and those of the fol- 



244 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY* 

lowing year, and has coiHmunicated to me so vivid 
and interesting a comparison of their merits, as they 
struck his young and ardent mind, that I cannot con- 
sent to withhold it from the reader. 

" I met with Patrick Henry in the assembly in 
May, 1783. I also then met with Richard H. Lee. 
I lodged with Mr. Lee one or two sessions, and was 
perfectly acquainted with him, while I was yet a 
stranger to Mr. Henry. These two gentlemen were 
the great leaders in the house of delegates, and were 
almost constantly opposed : there were many other 
great men who belonged to that body ; but, as orators, 
they cannot be named with Henry or Lee. Mr. Lee 
was a polished gentleman : he had lost the use of 
one of his hands, but his manner was perfectly grace- 
ful. His language was always chaste, and although 
somewhat too monotonous, his speeches were al- 
ways pleasing ; yet he did not ravish your senses, nor 
carry away your judgment by storm. His was the 
mediate class of eloquence described by Rollin in his 
belles lettres; he was like a beautiful river, meander- 
ing through a flowery mead, but which never over- 
flowed its banks. It was Henry w^ho was the moun- 
tain torrent that swept away every thing before it : it 
was he alone who thundered and lightened : he alone 
attained that sublime species of eloquence also men- 
tioned by Rollin. 

" It has been one of the greatest pleasures of my 
life to hear these two great masters, almost con- 
stantly opposed to each other, for several sessions. I 
had no relish for any other speaker. Henry was al- 
most always victorious. He was as much superior to 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 246 

Lee in temper as in eloquence ; for while, with a mod- 
esty approaching almost to humility, he would apolo- 
gize to the house for heing so often ' obliged to differ 
from the honorable gentleman, which he assured 
them, was from no want of respect for him,' Lee 
was frequently much chafed by the opposition ; and 
I once heard him say aloud, and petulantly, after 
sustaining a great defeat, that 'if the votes were 
weighed instead of being counted, he should not have 

lost it/ * 

" Mr. Henry was inferior to Mr. Lee in the grace- 
fulness of his action, and perhaps also the chaste- 
ness of his language; yet his language was seldom 
incorrect, and his address always striking. He had a 
fine blue eye, and an earnest manner which made it 
impossible not to attend to him. His speaking was 
unequal, and always rose with the subject and the 
eminency. In this respect he differed entirely from 
Mr. Lee, who was always equal, and therefore less 
interesting. At some times Mr. Henry would seem 
to hobble, (especially at the beginning of his 
speeches,) and at others, his tones would be almost 
disagreeable : yet it was by means of his tones, and the 
happy modulation of his voice, that his speaking had 
perhaps its greatest effect. He had a happy articu- 

*Was this thought original in Mr. Lee, or had he un- 
consciously borrowed it from the younger Pliny? "Yet 
these reflections, it seems, made no impression upon the 
majority. Votes go by number, not weight; nor can it 
he otherwise in assemblies of this kind, where nothing is 
more unequal than that equality which prevails in them; 
for though every member has the same weight of suffrage, 
every member has not the same strength of judgment."— 
Melmoth's Translation of Pliny. London, 1748. 



246 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

lation, a clear, bold, st^mg voice, and every syllable 
was distinctly uttered. He was always very unas- 
suming, and very respectful toward his adversaries; 
the consequence was, that no feeling of disgust or an- 
imosity was arrayed against him. He was great at 
a reply, and greater in proportion to the pressure 
which was bearing upon him ; and it seemed to me, 
from the frequent opportunities of observation af- 
forded me during the period of which I have spoken, 
that the resources of his mind and of his eloquence 
were equal to any drafts which could possibly be 
made upon them.'^ 

This inequality in the speeches of Mr. Henry was 
imputed by some of his observers to art. He always 
spoke, they say, for victory, and wishing to carry 
every one with him, adapted the different parts of his 
discourse to their different capacities. A critic of 
a higher order would sometimes think him trifling, 
when in truth he was making a most powerful im- 
pression on the weaker members of the house. By 
these means, it is said, he contrived to worm his 
way through the whole body, and to insinuate his 
influence into every mind. When he hobbled, it was 
like the bird that thus artfully seeks to decoy away 
the foot of the intruder from the precious deposite of 
her brood ; and at the moment when it would be 
thought that his strength was almost exhausted, he 
would spring magnificently from the earth, and tower 
above the clouds. 

He knew all the local interests and prejudices of 
every quarter of the state, and of every county in it ; 
and whether these prejudices were rational or ir- 
rational, it is said that he would appeal to them with- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 247 

out hesitation, and, whenever he found it necessary, 
enlist them in his cause. His address on these oc- 
casions has been highly admired even by those who 
have censured the course as deficient in dignity and 
candor. It was executed with so much delicacy and 
adroitness, and covered under a countenance of such 
apostolic solemnity, that the persons on whom^ he 
was operating were unconscious of the design. Wind- 
ing his way thus artfully through the house, from 
county to county, from prejudice to prejudice, with 
the power of moving them, when he pleased, from 
tears to laughter, from laughter to tears, of astonish- 
ing their imaginations, and overwhelming their judg- 
ments and hearts, it is easy to conceive how irresisti- 
ble he must have been. When with these prodigious 
faculties the reader connects his engaging deportment 
out of the house, the uncommon kindness and gentle- 
ness of his nature, the simplicity, frankness, and 
amenity of his manners, the innocent playfulness and 
instruction of his conversation, the integrity of his 
life, and the high sense of the services which he had 
rendered to the cause of liberty and his country, he 
wall readily perceive, that the opinions and wishes 
of such a man would be, of themselves, almost de- 
cisive of any question. 

The artifice of resorting to erroneous local preju- 
dices, in a legislative debate, is certainly not to^ be 
commended. Truth stands in need of no such aids. 
It must be admitted that there is more purity, as 
well as dignity, in supporting a sound measure by 
sound arguments only : and we must be prepared to 
become Jesuits, before we can justify a resort to 
wrong means to promote even a right end. In excuse 



24:8 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

of Mr. Henry, we hav^^othing to urge except im- 
memorial and almost universal usage ; and it is more- 
over liiglily probable, that many of the instances, 
in which he was accused of resorting improperly to 
local prejudices, were cases in which the questions 
were, from their nature, to be decided in a great 
measure by local interests. Of this description is 
the following one, now furnished, at my request, in 
writing, by Judge Archibald Stuart, from whom I 
had the pleasure to hear it in conversation several 
years ago : — 

" At your request, I attempt a narrative of the ex- 
traordinary effects of Mr. Henry's eloquence in the 
Virginia legislature, about the year 1784, when I was 
present as a member of that body. 

" The finances of the country had been much de- 
ranged during the war, and public credit was at a low 
ebb ; a party in the legislature thought it then high 
time to place the character and credit of the state on 
a more respectable footing, by laying taxes commen- 
surate with all the public demands. With this view, 
a bill had been brought into the house, and referred 
to a committee of the whole ; in support of which the 
then speaker, (Mr. Tyler,) Henry Tazewell, Mann 
Page, William Ronald, and many other members of 
great respectability, (including, to the best of my 
recollection, Richard H. Lee, and, perhaps, Mr. Mad- 
ison,) took an active part. Mr. Henry, on the other 
hand, was of opinion that this was a premature at- 
tempt ; that policy required that the people should 
have some repose after the fatigues and privations to 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 249 

which they had been subjected, during a long and 
arduous struggle for independence. 

" The advocates of the bill, in committee of the 
whole house, used their utmost efforts, and were suc- 
cessful in conforming it to their views, by such a 
majority ( say thirty) as seemed to ensure its passage. 
When the committee rose, the bill was instantly re- 
ported to the house ; when Mr. Henry, who had been 
excited and roused by his recent defeat, came for- 
ward again in all the majesty of his power. For some 
time after he commenced speaking, the countenances 
of his opponents indicated no apprehension of danger 
to their cause. 

" The feelings of Mr. Tyler, which were some- 
times warm, could not on that occasion be concealed, 
even in the chair. His countenance was forbidding, 
even repulsive, and his face turned from the speaker. 
Mr. Tazewell was reading a pamphlet; and Mr. 
Page was more than usually grave, xlfter some time, 
however, it was discovered that Mr. Tyler's counte- 
nance gradually began to relax ; he would occasion- 
ally look at Mr. Henry ; sometimes smile : his atten- 
tion by degrees became more fixed ; at length it be- 
came completely so : — he next appeared to be in good 
humor; he leaned toward Mr. Henry — appeared 
charmed and delighted, and finally lost in wonder and 
amazement. The progress of these feelings was legi- 
ble in his countenance. 

'^ Mr. Henry drew a most affecting picture of the 
state of poverty and suffering in which the people of 
the upper counties had been left by the war. His 
delineation of their wants and wretchedness was so 
minute, so full of feeling, and withal so true, that 



250 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

he could scarcely fail to enlist on his side every 
sympathetic mind. He contrasted the severe toil by 
which tliey had to gain their daily subsistence, with 
the facilities enjoyed by the people of the lower coun- 
ties. The latter, he said, residing on the salt rivers 
and creeks, could draw their supplies at pleasure, 
from the waters that flowed by their doors ; and then 
he presented such a ludicrous image of the members 
who had advocated the bill, (the most of whom were 
from the lower counties,) peeping and peering along 
the shores of the creeks, to pick up their mess of crabs, 
or addling off to the oyster-rocks, to rake for their 
daily hread,^ as filled the house w^ith a roar of merri- 
ment. Mr. Tazewell laid down his pamphlet, and 
shook his sides with laughter; even the gravity of 
Mr. Page was affected ; a corresponding change of 
countenance prevailed through the ranks of the ad- 
vocates of the bill, and you might discover that they 
had surrendered their cause. In this they were not 
disappointed ; for on a division, Mr. Henry had a 
majority of upward of thirty against the bilL'^ 

If this be a fair specimen of the cases (as probably 
it is) in which Mr. Henry was accused of appealing 
improperly to local prejudices, the censure seems un- 
deserved. It is obvious that the considerations urged 
by him, on this occasion, belonged properly to the 
subject, and that the appeal to local circumstances 
was fairly made. Candor will justify us in looking, 

♦At that day, (and perhaps still,) the poorer people 
on the salt creeks, lived almost exclusively on fish; pass- 
ing whole days and sometimes weeks, without seeing a 
grain of bread. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 251 

with great distrust, to the censures cast on this ex- 
traordinary man, by rivals whom he had obscured. 

On the 17th of November, 1784, Mr. Henry was 
acrain elected governor of Virginia, to commence hi& 
service from the 30th day of the same month. ^ The 
communication made by him to the first legislature 
which met after his election, is inserted m the Ap- 
pendix; it is given at large, as a specimen of Mr. 
Henry's style in more extended compositions than 
have vet been submitted to the reader, and for the 
further purpose of showing, that the objects with 
which a governor of Virginia, acting within the pale 
of the constitution, is conversant in time of peace, 
are not such as to shed much lustre on his character, 
or to solicit very powerfully the attention of his 

biographer. 

In examining the public archives of this date, 
there is a circumstance whose frequent and indeed 
constant recurrence presses itself most painfully on 
the attention : I mean the resignation of state officers, 
on the plea of a necessity to resort to some more ef- 
fectual means of subsistence. It is not generally 
known, that the councils of Virginia were, during the 
period of which we are now speaking, enlightened 
and adorned by some of the brightest of her sons: 
much less is it known that they were driven from 
those councils, by that wretched policy which has 
always regulated the salaries of officers m Virginia. 
The letters of resignation, during the years^ 1784, 
1785, and 1786, which now stand on the public files, 
afford the best comment on this policy. Virginia 
lost, during those years, the services of such men as 
have rarely existed in this or any other country. 



252 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

In the fall of 1786, while yet a year remained of 
his constitutional term, Mr. Henry was under the 
necessity of retiring from the office of governor. 
There never was a man whose style of living was 
more perfectly unostentatious, temperate, and sim- 
ple; yet the salary had been inadequate to the sup- 
port of his family; and, at the end of two years, he 
found himself involved in debts which, for the mo- 
ment, he saw no hope of paying, but by the sacrifice 
of a part of his estate. 

In consequence of Mr. Henry's declining a re- 
election, the legislature proceeded to appoint his suc- 
cessor; and then, on the succeeding 25th of J^ovem- 
ber, the house of delegates came to the following reso- 
lution : — 

" Resolved unanimously. That a committee be ap- 
ponited to wait on his excellency the governor, and 
present him the thanks of this house, for his wis.e, 
prudent, and upright administration, during his last 
appointment of chief magistrate of this common- 
wealth, assuring him that they retain a perfect sense 
of his abilities, in the discharge of the duties of that 
high and important office, and wish him all domestic 
happiness, on his return to private life." 

To this resolution, Mr. Corbin, one of the com- 
mittee, reported the following answer from Mr. 
Henry : — 

" Gentlemen, 

" The house of delegates have done me distin- 
guished honor, by the resolution they have been 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY* 263 

pleased to communicate to me through you. I am 
happy to find my endeavors to discharge the duties of 
my station, have met with their favorable acceptance. 

" The approbation of my country is the highest 
reward to which my mind is capable of aspiring, and 
I shall return to private life, highly gratified in the 
recollection of this instance of regard shown me by 
the house ; having only to regret that my abilities to 
serve my country have come so short, of my wishes. 

" At the same time that I make my best acknowl- 
edgments to the house for their goodness, I beg leave 
to express my particular obligations to you, gentle- 
men, for the polite manner in which this communi- 
cation is made to me." 

On the fourth of December, in the same year, Mr. 
Henry was appointed by the legislature, one of seven 
deputies from this commonwealth to meet a conven- 
tion proposed to be held in Philadelphia, on the fol- 
lowing May, for the purpose of revising the federal 
constitution. On this list of deputies, his name 
stands next to that of him, who stood of right before 
all others in America ; the order of appointment as 
exhibited by the journals being as follows: George 
Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, 
John Blair, James Madison, George Mason, and 
George Wythe. 

The same cause, however, which had constrained 
Mr. Henry's retirement from the executive chair of 
'.he state, disabled him now from obeying this hon- 
orable call of his country. On his resigning the gov- 
ernment, he retired to Prince Edward county, and 
endeavored to cast about for the means of extricating 



i354 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

himself from his debts. #lLt the age of fifty years, 
worn down by more than twenty years of arduous 
service in the cause of his country, eighteen of which 
had been occupied by the toils and tempests of the 
revolution, it w^as natural for him to wdsh for rest, 
and to seek some secure and placid port in which he 
might repose himself from the fatigues of the storm. 
This however was denied him ; and after having de- 
voted the bloom of youth and the maturity of man- 
hood to the good of his country, he had now in his 
old age to provide for his family. 

" He had never," says Judge Winston, ** been in 
easy circumstances; and soon after his removal to 
Prince Edward county, conversing with his usual 
frankness with one of his neighbors, he expressed his 
anxiety under the debts which he was not able to 
pay ; the reply was to this effect : ^ Go back to the bar ; 
your tongue will soon pay your debts. If you will 
promise to go, I will give you a retaining fee on the 
spot.' 

^^ This blunt advice determined him to return to 
the practice of the law^ ; which he did in the beginning 
of 1788, and during six years he attended regularly 
the district courts of Prince Edward and New Lon- 
don." 

Direful must have been the necessity which drove 
a man of Mr. Henry's disposition and habits, at his 
time of life, and tempest-beaten as he was, to resume 
the practice of such a profession as the law. He 
would not, however, undertake the technical duties 
of the profession ; his engagements were confined to 
the argument of the cause ; and his clients had of 
course to employ other counsel, to conduct the plead- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 255 

ings, and ripen their cases for hearing. Hence his 
practice was restricted to difficult and important 
cases ; but his great reputation kept him constantly 
engaged ; he was frequently called to distant courts ; 
the light of his eloquence shone in every quarter of 
the state, and thousands of tongues were every where 
employed in repeating the fine effusions of his gen- 
ius. 

The federal constitution, the fruit of the conven- 
tion at Philadelphia, had now come forth, and pro- 
duced an agitation Avhich had not been felt since the 
return of peace. The friends and the enemies to its 
adoption were equally zealous and active in their 
exertions to promote their respective wishes; the 
presses throughout the continent teemed with essays 
on the subject ; and the rostrum, the pulpit, the field, 
and the forest, rung with declamations and discus- 
sions of the most animated character. Every assem- 
blage of people, for whatsoever purpose met, either 
for court or church, muster or barbecue, presented an 
arena for the political combatants : and in some quar- 
ters of the union, such was the public anxiety of the 
occasion, that gentlemen in the habit of public speak- 
ing, converted ' themselves into a sort of itinerant 
preachers, going from county to county, and from 
state to state, collecting the people by distant ap- 
pointments, and challenging all adversaries to meet 
and dispute with them the propriety of the adoption 
of the federal constitution. All who sought to dis- 
tinguish themselves by public speaking, all candidates 
for popular favor, and especially the junior mem- 
bers of the bar, flocked to these meetings from the 
remotest distances, and entered the lists with all the 



266 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ardor and gallantry of tne knights of former times at 
their tilts and tournaments. Never was there a 
theme more fruitful of discussion, and never was 
there one more amply or ably discussed. 

Of the convention which was to decide the fate 
of this instrument in Virginia, Mr. Henry was 
chosen a member for the county of Prince Edward. 
Although the constitution had come forth with the 
sanction of the revered name of Washington, and 
carried with it all the weight of popularity which that 
name could not fail to attach to any proposition, it 
had not the good fortune to be approved by Mr. 
Henry. He was (to use his own expression) ^' most 
awfully alarmed " at the idea of its adoption ; for 
he considered it as threatening the liberties of his 
country ; and he determined, therefore, to buckle on 
once more the armor which he had hung up in the 
temple of peace, and try the fortune of this, the last 
of his political fields. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MEMBER OF THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY. RATIFICATION 
OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

1788-1791. 

The convention met in Eiehmond, on the 2cl of 
June, 1788, and exhibited such an array of varie- 
gated talents, as had never been collected before 
within the limits of the state, and such a one as it may 
well be feared we shall never see again. The powers 
of the most eminent of these statesmen, and the pecu- 
liar characters of their intellectual excellence, are so 
well known, that their names will be sufficient to 
speak their respective eulogies. We may mention, 
therefore, Mr. Madison, afterwards president of the 
United States; Mr. Marshall, the first chief-justice 
and the interpreter of the constitution ; and Mr. Mon- 
roe, the president. What will the reader think of a 
body, in which men like these were only among their 
equals! Yet such is the fact; for there were those 
sages of other days, Pendleton and Wythe ; there was 
seen displayed the Spartan vigor and compactness of 
George IN'icholas; and there shone the radiant genius 
and sensibility of Grayson ; the Roman energy and 
the Attic wit of George Mason was there; and there, 
also, the classic taste and harmony of Edmund Ran- 

257 



258 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

dolph ; " the splendid conflagration '^ of the high- 
minded Innis; and the matchless eloquence of the 
immortal Henry ! 

It was not until the 4th, that the preliminary ar- 
rangements for the discussion were settled. Mr. Pen- 
dleton had been unanimously elected the president of 
the convention ; but it having been determined that 
the subject should be debated in committee of the 
whole, the house on that day resolved itself into com- 
mittee, and the venerable Mr. Wythe was called to 
the chair. In conformity with the order which had 
been taken, to discuss the constitution, clause by 
clause, the clerk now read the preamble, and the two 
first sections; and the debate was opened by Mr. 
George Nicholas. He confined himself strictly to 
the sections under consideration, and maintained 
their policy with great cogency of argument. Mr. 
Henry rose next, and soon demonstrated that his ex- 
cursions were not to be restrained by the rigor of 
rules. Insteal of proceeding to answer Mr. Nicholas, 
he commenced by sounding an alarm calculated to 
produce a most powerful impression. The effect, 
however, will be entirely lost upon the reader, unless 
he shall associate with the speech which I am about to 
lay before him, that awful solemnity and look of 
fearful portent, by which Mr. Henry could imply 
even more than he expressed ; and that slow, distinct, 
emphatic enunciation, by which he never failed to 
move the souls of his hearers. 

^ " Mr. Chairman — The public mind, as well as 
my own, is extremely uneasy at the proposed change 
of government. Give me leave to form one of the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 259 

number of those wlio wish to be thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the reasons of this perilous and uneasy 
situation, and why we are brought hither to decide 
on this great national question. I consider myself as 
the servant of the people of this commonwealth, as 
a sentinel over their rights, liberty, and happiness. I 
represent their feelings when I say, that they are ex- 
ceedingly uneasy, being brought from that state of 
full security which they enjoyed, to the present dey/' 
lusive appearance of things. A year ago, the minds 
of our citizens were at perfect repose. Before the 
meeting of the late federal convention at Philadel- 
phia, a general peace and a universal tranquillity pre- 
vailed in this country ; but since that period, they are 
exceedingly uneasy and disquieted. When I wished 
for an appointment to this convention, my mind was 
extremely agitated for the situation of public affairs. 
I conceive the republic to be in extreme danger. If 
our situation be thus uneasy, whence has arisen this 
fearful jeopardy ? It arises from this fatal system : 
arises from a proposal to change our government, a 
proposal that goes to the utter annihilation of the 
most solemn engagements of the states, a proposal of 
establishing nine states into confederacy, to the 
eventual exclusion of four states. It goes to the an- 
nihilation of those solemn treaties we have formed 
with foreign nations. The present circumstances of 
France — the good offices rendered us by that king- 
dom — require our most faithful and most punctual 
adherence to our treaty with her. We are in alliance 
with the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Prussians: those 
treaties bound us as thirteen states, confederated to- 
gether. Yet here is a proposal to sever that confed- 



260 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

eracj. Is it possible that we shall abandon all our 
treaties and national engagements ? And for what ? 
I expected to have heard the reasons of an event, so 
unexpected to my mind and many others. Was our 
civil polity or public justice endangered or sapped? 
Was the real existence of the country threatened, or 
was this preceded by a mournful progression of 
events ? This proposal of altering our federal govern- 
ment is of a most alarming nature. Make the best of 
this new government — say it is composed by anything 
but inspiration — you ought to be extremely cautious, 
w^atchful, jealous of your liberty: for instead of se- 
curing our rights, you may lose them for ever. If 
a wrong step be now made, the republic may be 
lost for ever. If this new government will not come 
up to the expectation of the people, and they should 
be disappointed, their liberty will be lost, and tyr- 
anny must and will arise. I repeat it again, and I 
beg gentlemen to consider, that a wrong step made 
now, will plunge us into misery, and our republic 
will be lost. It will be necessary for this convention 
to have a faithful historical detail of the facts that 
preceded the session of the federal convention, and 
the reasons that actuated its members in proposing 
an entire alteration of government, and to demon- 
strate the dangers that aw^aited us: if they were of | 
such awful magnitude, as to w^arrant a proposal so \ 
extremelj'^ perilous as this, I must assert, that this 
convention has an absolute right to a thorough dis- 
covery of every circumstance relative to this great 
event. And here I would make this inquiry of those 
worthy characters who composed a part of the late 
federal convention. I am sure they were fully im- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 261 

pressed with the necessity of forming a great con- 
solidated government, instead of a confederation. 
That this is a consolidated government is demonstra- 
bly clear ; and the danger of such a government is to 
my mind very striking. .'^ have the highest venera- 
tion for those gentlemen : but, sir, give me leave to 
demand, v^hat right had they to say, we, the people ?/^ 
" My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious 
solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask, 
^^ho authorized them to speak the language of, we the 
people, instead of, lue, the states? States are the 
characteristics, and the soul of a confederation. If 
the states be not the agents of this compact, it must 
be one great, consolidated, national, government of 
the people of all the states/ I have the highest re- 
spect for those gentlemen who formed the conven- 
tion ; and were some of them not here, I would ex- 
press some testimonial of esteem for them. America 
had, on a former occasion, put the utmost confidence 
in them ; a confidence which was well placed ; and I 
am sure, sir, I would give up any thing to them ; I 
would cheerfully confide in them as my representa- 
tives. But, sir, on this great occasion, I would de- 
mand the cause of their conduct. Even from that il- 
lustrious man, who saved us by his valor, I would 
have a reason for his conduct. That liberty which he 
has given us by his valor, tells me to ask this reason, 
and sure I am, were he here, he would give us that 
reason : but there are other gentlemen here who can 
give us this information.. T/?e people gave them no 
power to use their name. That they exceeded their 
power is perfectly clea^r ' It is not mere curiosity that 
actuates me ; I wish to hear the real, actual^ existing 



262 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

danger, which should lead us to take those steps so 
dangerous in my conception. Disorders have arisen 
in other parts of America ; but here, sir, no dangers, 
no insurrection, or tumult, has happened, every thing 
has been calm and tranquil. But, notwithstanding 
this, we are wandering on the great ocean of human 
affairs. I see no landmark to guide us. We are run- 
ning we know not whither. Difference in opinion has 
gone to a degree of inflammatory resentment, in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, which has been occasioned 
by this perilous innovation. The federal convention 
ought to have amended the old system. For this pur- 
pose they were solely delegated: the object of their 
mission extended to no other consideration. You 
must therefore forgive the solicitation of one un- 
worthy member, to know what danger could have 
arisen under the present confederation, and what are 
the causes of this proposal to change our govern- 
ment ? " 

This inquiry was answered by an eloquent speech 
from Mr. Randolph, and the debate passed into other 
hands, until on the next day, when General Lee, in 
reference to Mr. Henry's opening speech, addressed 
the chair, as follows : — 

" Mr. Chairman — I feel every power of my mind 
moved by the language of the honorable gentleman, 
yesterday. The eclat and brilliancy which have dis- 
tinguished that gentleman, the honors with which 
he has been dignified, and the brilliant talents which 
he has so often displayed, have attracted my respect 
and attention. On so important an occasion, and be- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 263 

fore so respectable a body, I expected a new display 
of his powers of oratory : but, instead of proceeding 
to investigate the merits of the new plan of govern- 
ment, the worthy character informed us of horrors 
which he felt, of apprehensions in his mind, which 
made him tremblingly fearful of the fate of the com- 
monwealth. Mr. Chairman, was it proper to appeal 
to the fear of this house ? The question before us 
belongs to the judgment of this house ; I trust he is 
come to judge and not to alarm. I trust that he, and 
every other gentleman in this house, comes with a 
firm resolution, coolly and calmly to examine, and 
fairly and impartially to determine.'' 

In the further progress of his speech, General Lee 
again said, rather tauntingly, of Mr. Henry — " The 
gentleman sat down as he began, leaving us to rumi- 
nate on the horrors with which he opened." 

Mr. Henry, rising immediately after these sar- 
castic remarks, gave a striking specimen of that dig- 
nified self-command, and that strict and uniform de- 
corum, by which he was so pre-eminently distin- 
guished in debate. Far from retorting the sarcasms of 
his adversary, he seemed to have heard nothing but 
the compliments Avith which they stood connected, 
and rising slowly from his seat, with a countenance 
expressive of unaffected humility, he began with the 
following modest and disqualifying exordium : " Mr. 
Chairman — I am much obliged to the very worthy 
gentleman for his encomium. I wish I was possessed 
of talents, or possessed of anything, that might enable 
me to elucidate this great subject. I own, sir, I am 



264: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

not free from suspic^i. I am apt to entertain 
doubts. I rose, on yesterday, not to enter upon the 
discussion, but merely to ask a question which had 
arisen in my own mind. When I asked that question, 
I thought the meaning of my interrogation was ob- 
vious. The fate of America may depend on this ques- 
tion. Have they said, we the states? Have they 
made a proposal of a compact between states ? If 
they had, this would be a confederation ; it is, other- 
wise, most clearly a consolidated government. The 
whole question turns, sir, on that poor little thing, 
the expression, we the people^ instead of, the states of 
x^merica." 

He then proceeded to set forth, in terrible array, 
his various objections to the constitution ; not con- 
fining himself to the clauses under debate, but rang- 
ing through the whole instrument, and passing from 
objection to objection, as they followed each other in 
his mind. This departure from the rule of the house, 
although at first view censurable, was insisted upon 
by himself and his colleagues, as being indispensa- 
ble to a just examination of the particular clause 
under consideration ; because the policy or impolicy 
of any provision did not always depend upon itself 
alone, but on other provisions with which it stood con- 
nected, and, indeed, upon the whole system of powers 
and checks that were associated with it in the same 
instrument, and thus formed only parts of one entire 
whole. The truth of this position, in relation to some 
of the provisions, could not be justly denied ; and a 
departure once made from the rigor of the rule, the 
debate became at large^ on every part of the constitu- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 265 

tion ; the disputants at every stage looking forward 
and backward throughout the whole instrument, with- 
out any control other than their own discretion. 
Thus freed from restraints, under which his genius 
was at all times impatient, uncoupled and let loose 
to range the whole field at pleasure, Mr. Henry 
seemed to have recovered, and to luxuriate in all the 
powers of his youth. He had, indeed, occasion for 
them all ; for while he was supported by only three 
effective auxiliaries, opposed to him stood a phalanx, 
most formidable both for talents and weight of char- 
acter; and several of whom it might be said, with 
truth, that each, was " in himself a host ; '' for at the 
head of the opposing ranks stood Mr. Pendleton, Mr. 
Wythe, Mr. Madison, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Nicholas, 
Mr. Randolph, Mr. Innis, Mr. Henry Lee, and Mr. 
Corbin. Fearful odds ! and such as called upon him 
for the most strenuous exertion of all his faculties. 
!N'or did he sink below the occasion. For twenty days, 
during which this great discussion continued without 
intermission, his efforts were sustained, not only with 
undiminished strength, but with powers which seemed 
to gather new force from every exertion. All the fac- 
ulties useful for debate were found united in him, 
with a degree of perfection, in which they are rarely 
seen to exist, even separately, in different individuals : 
irony, ridicule, the purest wit, the most comic humor, 
exclamations that made the soul start, the most af- 
fecting pathos, and the most sublime apostrophes, lent 
their aid to enforce his reasoning, and to put to flight 
the arguments of his adversaries. 
/The objection that the constitution substituted a 
Consolidated in lieu of a confederated government, 



^QQ ' LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

and that this new consofidated government threatexied 
the total annihilation of the state sovereignties-j-^was 
pressed by him with most masterly power: he said 
there was no necessity for a change of government so 
entire and fundamental, and no inducement to it, 
unless it was to be found in this splendid government, 
which we were told was to make us a great and 
mighty people. ^' We have no detail," said he, '^ of 
those great considerations, which, in my opinion, 
ought to have abounded, before we should recur to a 
government of this kind. Here is a revolution as rad- 
ical as that which separated us from Great Britain. 
^/It is as radical, if in this transition our rights and 
privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the 
states be relinquished : and cannot we plainly see, that 
this is actually the case ? The rights of conscience, 
trial by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities 
and franchises, all pretensions to human rights and 
privileges, are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this 
change so loudly talked of by some, and so inconsid- 
erately by others. Is this tame relinquishment of 
rights worthy of freemen ? Is it worthy of that 
manly fortitude that ought to characterize republi- 
cans ? It is said eight states have adopted this plan : 
I declare, that if twelve states and a half had adopted 
it, I would with manly firmness, and in spite of an 
erring world, reject it. 'You are not to inquire how 
your trade may be increased, nor how you are to be- 
come a great and poAverful people, but how your lib- 
erties can be secured ; for liberty ought to be the di- 
rect end of your government. Is it necessary for your 
liberty, that you should abandon those great rights by 
the adoption of this system ? Is the relinquishment 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 267 

of the trial by jury, and the liberty of the press, 
necessary for your liberty ? Will the abandonment of 
your most sacred rights tend to the security of your 
liberty ? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings 
— give us that precious jewel, and you may take every 
thing else !/•'' But I am fearful I have lived long 
enough to become an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps 
an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man, 
may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed 
old-fashioned : if so, I am contented to be so : I say, 
the time has been, when every pulse of my heart beat 
for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a 
counterpart in the breast of every true American ; but 
suspicions have gone forth — suspicions of my in- 
tegrity; it has been publicly reported that my pro- 
fessions are not real; twenty-three years ago was I 
supposed a traitor to my country ; I was then said to 
be a bane of sedition because I supported the rights 
of my country ; I may be thought suspicious, when I 
say our privileges and rights are in danger; but, sir, 
a number of the people of this country are weak 
enough to think these things are too true. I am 
happy to find, that the gentleman on the other side 
declares they are groundless : but, sir, suspicion is a 
virtue, as long as its object is the preservation of the 
public good, and as long as it stays within proper 
bounds : should it fall on me, I am contented ; con- 
scious rectitude is a powerful consolation : I trust 
there are many who think my professions for the 
public good to be real. Let your suspicion look to 
both sides : there are many on the other side, who 
l^ossibly may have been persuaded of the necessity of 
these measures, which I conceive to be dangerous to 



268 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

your liberty, xtjiiard with^^lous attention the public 
liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that 
jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but 
downright force : whenever you give up that force, 
you are inevitably ruined. I am answered by gen- 
tlemen, that though I might speak of terrors, yet 
the fact was, that we were surrounded by none of 
the dangers I apprehended. I conceive this new 
government to be one of those dangers: it has pro- 
duced those horrors which distress many of our best 
citizens. We are come hither to preserve the poor 
commonwealth of Virginia, if it can be possibly done: 
something^uust be done to preserve your liberty and 
mine. The confederation, this same despised govern- 
ment, merits, in my opinion, the highest encomium: 
it carried us through a long and dangerous war; it 
rendered us victorious in that bloody conflict Avith a 
powerful nation; it has secured us a territory greater 
than any European monarch possesses : and shall a 
government which has been thus strong and vigorous, 
be accused of imbecility, and abandoned for want of 
energy ? Consider what you are about to do, before 
you part with this government. Take longer time in 
reckoning things ; revolutions like this have happened 
in almost every country of Europe : similar examples 
are to be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome : 
instances of the people losing their liberty by their 
own carelessness and the ambition of a few. We are 
cautioned, by the honorable gentleman who presides, 
against faction and turbulence: I acknowledge that 
licentiousness is dangerous, and that it ought to be 
provided against : I acknowledge, also, the new form 
of government may effectually prevent it : yet there 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 269 

is another thing it will as effectually do — it will op- 
press and ruin the people. There are sufficient guards 
placed against faction and licentiousness: for Avhen 
power is given to this government to suppress these, 
or for any other purpose, the language it assumes is 
clear, express, and unequivocal: but when this con- 
stitution speaks of privileges, there is an ambiguity. 
Sir, a fatal ambiguity, an ambiguity which is very 
astonishing ! " 

The adoption of the instrument had been main- 
tained upon the ground that it would increase our 
military strength, and enable us to resist the lawless 
ambition (>f foreign princes : it had been urged, too, 
that if the convention should rise without adopting 
the instrument, disunion and anarchy would be the 
certain consequences. In answer to these topics he 
said — '' Happy will you be, if you miss the fate of 
those nations, who, omitting to resist their oppressors, 
or negligently suffering their liberty to be wrested 
from them, have groaned under intolerable despot- 
ism ! Most of the human race are now in this de- 
plorable condition. And those nations who have 
gone in search of grandeur, power, and splendor have 
also fallen a sacrifice, and been the victims of their 
own folly. While they acquired those visionary 
blessings, they lost their freedom. 

" My great objection to this government is, that it 
does not leave us the means of defending our rights, 
or of waging w^ar against tyrants. It is urged by 
some gentlemen, that this new plan will bring us an 
acquisition of strength, an army, and the militia of 
the states. This is an idea extremely ridiculous : gen- 



270 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tlemen cannot be in esffiest. This acquisition will 
trample on your fallen liberty ! Let my beloved 
Americans guard against that fatal lethargy that has 
pervaded the universe. Have we the means of resist- 
ing disciplined armies, when our only defence, the 
militia, is put into the hands of congress ? The hon- 
orable gentleman said, that great danger would ensue, 
if the convention rose without adopting this system. 
I ask, where is that danger ? I see none. Other gen- 
tlemen have told us within these walls, that the union 
is gone, or, that the union will be gone. Is not this 
trifling with the judgment of their fellow-citizens ? 
Till they tell us the ground of their fears, I will con- 
sider them as imaginary. I rose to make inquiry 
where those dangers were; they could make no an- 
swer: I believe I never shall have that answer. Is 
there a disposition in the people of this country to 
revolt against the dominion of laws ? Has there been 
a single tumult in Virginia ? Have not the people 
of Virginia, when laboring under the severest pres- 
sure of accumulated distresses, manifested the most 
cordial acquiescence in the execution of the laws ? 
What could be more lawful than their unanimous ac- 
quiescence under general distresses ? Is there any 
revolution in Virginia ? Whither is the spirit of 
America gone ? Whither is the genius of America 
fled ? It was but yesterday when our enemies 
marched in triumph through our country. Yet the 
people of this country could not be appalled by their 
pompous armaments : they stopped their career, and 
victoriously captured them ! Where is the peril now 
compared to that ? Some minds are agitated by for- 
eign alarms. Happily for us, there is no real danger 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 271 

from Europe : that country is engaged in more ar- 
duous business : from that quarter there is no cause of 
fear : you may sleep in safety for ever for them. 
Where is the danger ? If, Sir, there was any, I 
would recur to the American spirit to defend us — 
♦that spirit which has enabled us to surmount the 
greatest difficulties: to that illustrious spirit I ad- 
dress my most fervent prayer, to prevent our adopt- 
ing a system destructive to liberty. Let not gentle- 
men be told that it is not safe to reject this govern- 
ment. Wherefore is it not safe ? We are told there 
are dangers ; but those dangers are ideal ; they cannot 
be demonstrated. To encourage us to adopt it, they 
tell us that there is a plain, easy way of getting 
amendments. When I come to contemplate this part, 
I suppose that I am mad, or, that my countrymen are 
so. The way to amendment is, in my conception, 
shut. Let us consider this plain, easy way." 

He then proceeds to demonstrate, that as the con- 
stitution required the concurrence of three-fourths 
of the states to any amendment, it followed that six- 
tenths of the people, in four of the smallest states, 
(not containing collectively one-tenth part of the pop- 
ulation of the United States,) would have it in their 
power to defeat the most salutary amendments ; and 
then asks, " Is this, Sir, an easy mode of securing the 
public liberty? It is. Sir, a most fearful situa- 
tion, when the most contemptible minority can pre- 
vent the alteration of the most oppressive govern- 
ment : for it may, in many respects, prove to be such. 
Is this the spirit of republicanism? What, Sir, is 
the genius of democracy ? Let me read that clause of 



272 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. j 

the bill of rights of '\''<ii^inia, which relates to this: 
3d Art. ^ That government is, or ought to be, in- 
stituted for the common benefit, protection, and se- 
curity of the people, nation, or community; of all 
the various modes and forms of government, that is 
best which is capable of producing the greatest degree 
of happiness and safety, and is most effectually se- 
cured against the danger of mal-administration ; and 
that whenever any government shall be found inad- 
equate, or contrary to these purposes, a majority of 
the com,munity hath an indubitable, unalienable, and 
indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in 
such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the 
public weal.' This, Sir, is the language of democ- 
racy, that a majority of the community have a right 
to alter their government when found to be oppres- 
sive ; but how different is the genius of your new 
constitution from this ? How different from the sen- 
timents of freemen, that a contemptible minority can 
prevent the good of the majority ? If, then, gentle- 
men, standing on this ground, are come to that point, 
that they are willing to bind themselves and their 
posterity to be oppressed, I am amazed, and inex- 
pressibly astonished ! If this be the opinion of the 
majority, I must submit ; but to me. Sir, it appears 
perilous and destructive; I cannot help thinking so; 
perhaps it may be the result of my age ; these may be 
feelings natural to a man of my years, when the 
American spirit has left him, and his mental powers, 
like the members of the body, are decayed. If, Sir, 
amendments are left to the twentieth, or to the tenth 
part of the people of America, your liberty is gone for 
ever. We have heard that there is a great deal of 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 273 

bribery practised in the bouse of commons in Eng- 
land ; and that many of the members raised them- 
selves to preferments by selling the rights of the peo- 
ple. But, sir, the tenth part of that body cannot con- 
tinue oppressions on the rest of the people. English 
liberty is, in this case, on a firmer foundation than 
American liberty. It will be easily contrived to pro- 
cure the opposition of one tenth of the people to any 
alteration, however judicious." 

Mr. Pendleton had repelled the idea of danger 
from the adoption of the constitution, on the ground 
of the facility with which the people could recall their 
delegated powers, and change their servants. — " We 
will assemble in convention," said Mr. Pendleton, 
" wholly recall our delegated powers, or reform them 
so as to prevent such abuse, and punish our servants." 
In reply to this, Mr. Henry said : — " The honorable 
gentleman who presides told us, that, to prevent 
abuses in our government, we will assemble in con- 
vention, recall our delegated powers, and punish 
our servants for abusing the trust reposed in them. 
Oh, sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to 
punish tyrants, it were only necessary to assemble the 
people ! Your arms, wherewith you could defend 
yourselves, are gone ! and you have no longer an aris- 
tocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you 
ever read of any revolution in any nation, brought 
about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted 
by those who had no power at all ? You read of a 
riot act in a country which is called one of the freest 
in the world, where a few neighbors cannot assemble, 
without the risk of being shot by a hired soldiery, the 
engines of despotism. We may see such an act in 



274 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

America. A standing ^pmy we shall have also, to exe- 
cute the execrable commands of tyranny ; and how are 
you to punish them ? Will you order them to be 
punished ? Who shall obey these orders ? Will your 
mace bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment? 
In what situation are we to be ? The clause before 
you gives a power of direct taxation, unbounded and 
unlimited ; exclusive power of legislation, in all 
cases whatsoever, for ten miles square ; and over all 
places purchased for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals, dock-yards, &c. What resistance could be 
made ? The attempt Avould be madness. You will 
find all the strength of this country in the hands of 
your enemies ; those garrisons will naturally be the 
strongest places in the country. Your militia is given 
up to congress, also, in another part of this plan ; they 
will, therefore, act as they think proper; all power 
will be in their own possession ; you cannot force them 
to receive their punishment." 

He continued to ridicule very successfully the al- 
luring idea of the expected splendor of the new gov- 
ernment, and the imaginary checks and balances 
which were said to exist in this constitution : ^^ If we 
admit," said he, " this consolidated government, it 
will be because we like a great splendid one. Some 
way or other we must be a great and mighty em- 
pire, we must have an army, and a navy, and a num- 
ber of things ! When the American spirit was in its 
youth, the language of America was different : liberty, 
sir, was then the primary object." And again : " This 
constitution is said to have beautiful features; when 
I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 275 

me horribly frightful! Among other deformities, it 
has an awful squinting : it squints towards monarchy ! 
And does not this raise indignation in the breast _ot 
every true American ? Your president may easily 
become king; your senate is so imperfectly con- ^ 
strueted, that your dearest rights may be sacrificed ^ 
by what may be a small minority ; and a very small 
minority may continue, for ever, unchangeable, this 
government, although horridly defective; where are 
your checks in this government? Your strongholds 
will be in the hands of your enemies ; it is on a sup- 
position that your American governors shall be 
honest, that all the good qualities of this government 
are founded; but its defective and imperfect con- 
struction puts it in their power to perpetrate the 
worst of mischiefs, should they be bad men; and, sir, 
would not all the world, from the eastern to the wes- 
tern hemisphere, blame our distracted folly m resting 
our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being 
good or bad ? Show me that age and country, where 
the rights and liberties of the people were placedon 
the sole chance of their rulers being good men, with- 
out a consequent loss of liberty ? I say, that the loss 
of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with ab- 
solute certainty, every such mad attempt If your 
American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, 
how easy is it for him to render himself absolute! 
The army is in his hands; and, if he be a man of ad- 
dress, it will be attached to him; and it will be the 
subject of long meditation with him to seize the first 
auspicious moment to accomplish his design; and, 
sir will the American spirit, solely, relieve you when 
this happens? I would rather infinitely, and I am 



276 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

sure most of this convent!^ are of the same opinion, 
have a king, lords, and commons, than a government 
so replete with such insupportable evils. If we make 
a king, we may prescribe the rules by which he shall 
rule his people, and interpose such checks as shall 
prevent him from infringing them ; but the president 
in the field, at the head of his army, can prescribe 
the terms on which he shall reign master, so far that 
it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from 
under the galling yoke. I cannot, with patience, 
think of this idea. If ever he violates the laws, one 
of two things will happen : he will come at the head 
of his army to carry every thing before him ; or he 
will give bail, or do what Mr. Chief-Justice will 
order him. If he be guilty, will not the recollection 
of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for 
the American throne ? Will not the immense differ- 
ence between being master of every thing, and being 
ignominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite 
him to make this bold push ? But, sir, where is the 
existing force to punish him ? Can he not, at the 
head of his army, beat down every opposition ? Away 
with your president ; we shall have a king : the army 
will salute him monarch ; your militia will leave you 
and assist in making him king, and fight against you : 
and what have you to oppose this force ? What will 
then become of you and your rights ? Will not abso- 
lute despotism ensue ? [Here Mr. Henry strongly 
and pathetically expatiated on the probability of the 
president's enslaving America, and the horrid con- 
sequences that must result.] 

After the frank admission of the reporter, exhib- 
ited by the words contained within those brackets, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 277 

that he had not attempted to follow Mr. Henry in 
this pathetic excursion, the reader will perceive, that 
it would be doing injustice to the memory of that 
eminent man, to multiply extracts from this book, as 
specimens of his eloquence. The stenographer who 
should be able to take down Mr. Henry's speeches, 
word for word, must have other qualities besides the 
perfect mastery of his art : he must have the perfect 
mastery of himself, and be able, for the moment, to 
play the mere automaton ; for without such self-com- 
mand, no man, who had a human heart in his bosom, 
could listen to his startling exclamations, or horror- 
breathing tones, without keeping his eyes immovably 
riveted upon the speaker. His dominion over his 
hearers was so absolute, that it was idle to think of 
resisting him ; you would as soon think of resisting 
the lightning of heaven. The very tone of voice, in 
which he would address the chairman, when he felt 
the inspiration of his genius rising — ^^ Mr. Chair- 
man ! " — and the awful pause which followed this 
call — fixed upon him at once every eye in the assem- 
bly : and then his own rapt countenance ! — those eyes 
which seemed to beam with light from another world, 
and under whose fiery glance the crest of the proud- 
est adversary fell! his majestic attitudes, and that 
bold, strong, and varied action, which spohe forth, 
with so much power, the energies of his own great 
spirit, rendered his person a spectacle so sublime, 
and so awfully interesting, that to look in any other 
direction when the spell was upon him was not to be 
expected from any man who had eyes to see and ears 
to hear. Little cause have we, therefore, to wonder 
or to complain, that a gentleman of Mr. Robertson's 



fTQ 



278 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

lively admiration of genius, and of his quick and 
kindling sensibility, was sometimes bedimmed by his 
own tears, and as others torn from his task by those 
master-fliehts, w^hich rushed like a miffhtv whirlwind 
from the earth, and carried up every thing in their 
vortex. 

/ The chief objections taken to the constitution are 
educible to the following heads : — 

I. That it was a consolidated, instead of a con- 
federated government : that in making it so, the del- 
egates at Philadelphia had transcended the limits of 
their commission : changed fundamentally the rela- 
tions which the states had chosen to bear to each 
other: annihilated their respective sovereignties, de- 
stroyed the barriers which divided them, and con- 
verted the whole into one solid empire. To this lead- 
ing objection, almost all the rest had reference, and 
were urged principally with the view to illustrate and 
enforce it. 

II. The vast and alarming array of specific powers 
given to the general government, and the wide door 
opened for an unlimited extension of those poAvers, 
by the clause which authorized congress to pass all 
laws necessary to carry the given powers into effect. 
It was urged that this clause rendered the previous 
specification of powers an idle illusion ; since, by the 
force of construction arising from that clause, con- 
gress might easily do any thing and every thing it 
chose, under the pretence of giving effect to some 
specified power. 

III. The unlimited power of taxation of all kinds ; 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 279 

the states were no longer to be required, in their 
federative characters, to contribute their respective 
proportions tov^^ard the expenses and engagements of 
the general government : but congress were authorized 
to go directly to the pockets of the people, and to 
sweep from them en masse, from north to south, what- 
ever portion of the earnings of the industrious poor 
the rapacity of the general government, or their 
schemes of ambitious grandeur, might suggest. It was 
contended, that such a power could not be exercised,^ 
without just complaint, over a country so extensive, 
and so diversified in its productions and the pursuits 
of its people : that it was impossible to select any sub- 
ject of general taxation which would not operate un- 
equally on the different sections of the union, produce 
discontent and heart-burnings among the people, and 
most probably terminate in open resistance to the 
laws: that the representatives in congress were too 
few to carry with them a knowledge of the wants and 
capacities of the people in the different parts of a 
large state, and that the representation could not be 
made full enough to attain that object without be- 
coming oppressively expensive to the country: that 
hence taxation ought to be left to the states them- 
selves, whose representation was full, who best knew 
the habits and circumstances of their constituents, 
and on what subjects a tax could be most conveniently 
laid. Mr. Henry said that he was willing to grant 
this power conditionally ; that is, upon the failure of 
the states to comply with requisitions from congress : 
but that the absolute and unconditional grant of it, 
in the first instance, filled his mind with the most 
awful anticipations. It was resolved, he saw clearly, 



280 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

that we must be a great and splendid people; and 
that in order to be so, immense revenues must be 
raised from the people: the people were to be bowed 
down under the load of their taxes, direct and in- 
direct ; and a swarm of federal tax-gatherers were to 
cover this land, to blight every blade of grass, and 
every leaf of vegetation, and consume its productions 
for the enrichment of themselves and their masters: 
it was not contended, he supposed, but that the state 
legislature, also might impose taxes for their own 
internal purposes : thus the people were to be doubly 
oppressed, and between the state sheriffs and the fed- 
eral sheriffs to be ground to dust : on this subject he 
drew such a vivid and affecting picture of these offi- 
cers, entering in succession the cabin of the broken- 
hearted peasant, and the last one rifling the poor re- 
mains which the first had left as is said to have drawn 
tears from every eye. 

IV. The power of raising armies and building 
navies, and still more emphatically, the control given 
to the general government over the militia of the 
states, was most strenuously opposed. The power 
thus given was a part of the means of that aggrandize- 
ment which was obviously meditated, and there could 
be no doubt that it would be exercised : so that this 
republic, whose best policy was peace, was to be sad- 
dled with the expense of maintaining standing armies 
and navies, useless for any other purpose than to in- 
sult her citizens, to afford a pretext for increased 
taxes, and an augmented public debt, and finally to 
subvert the liberties of her people : her militia, too, 
her last remaining defence, was gone. /" Congress," 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 281 

said Mr. Henry, " by the power of taxation — by that 
of raising an army and navy — and by their control 
over the militia — have the sword in the one hand, and 
the purse in the other. Shall we be safe without 
either? Congress have an unlimited power over 
both ; they are entirely given up by us. Let him (Mr. 
Madison) candidly tell me where and when did free- 
dom exist, when the sword and purse were given up 
from the people ? Unless a miracle in human affairs 
shall interpose, no nation ever did or ever can retain 
its liberty, after the loss of the sword and the purse.'/ 
The unlimited control over the militia was vehe- 
mently opposed, on the ground, that the marching 
militia from distant states to quell insurrection, and 
repel invasions, and keeping the free yeomanry of 
the country under the lash of martial law, would, in 
the first instance, produce an effect extremely inimical 
to the peace and harmony of the union ; and in the 
next, harass the agTicultural body of the people so 
much, as to reconcile them, as a less evil, to that curse 
of nations, and bane of freedom, a standing army : — 
and secondly, this power was opposed, on the ground 
that congress, under the boundless charter of construc- 
tive power which it possessed, might transfer to the 
president the power of calling forth the militia, and 
thus enable him to disarm all opposition to his 
schemes. 

V. The several clauses providing for the federal 
judiciary were objected to, on the ground of the 
clashing jurisdictions of the state and federal courts ; 
and secondly, because infinite power was given to 
congress to multiply inferior federal courts at pleas- 



282 LIFE OF PATRICK HENHY. 

lire ; a power which they would not fail to exercise in 
order to swell the patronage of the president, to their 
own emolument ; and thus enable him to reward their 
devotion to his views, by bestowing on them and their 
dependants those offices which they had themselves 
created. 

VI. It was contended that the trial by jury was 
gone in civil cases, by that clause which gives to the 
supreme court appellate power over the law and the 
fact in every case ; and which thereby enabled that 
tribunal to annihilate both the verdict and judgment 
of the inferior courts : and that in criminal cases also, 
the trial by jury was worse than gone, because it was 
admitted, that the common law, which alone gave 
the challenge for favor, Avoiild not be in force as to 
the federal courts ; and hence a jury might, in every 
instance, be packed to suit the purpose of the prosecu- 
tion. 

VII. The authority of the president to take the 
command of the armies of the United States, in per- 
son, was warmly resisted, on the ground, that if he 
were a military character, and a man of address, he 
might easily convert them into an engine for the 
worst of purposes. 

VIII. The cession of the whole treaty making- 
power to the president and senate, was considered as 
one of the most formidable features in the instru- 
ment, inasmuch as it put it in the power of the pres- 
ident and any ten senators, who might represent the 
five smallest states, to enter into the most ruinous 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. * 283 

foreign engagements, and even to cede away by treaty 
ajiy portion of the territory of the larger states : it 
was insisted, that the lower house, who were the im- 
mediate representatives of the people, instead of be- 
ing excluded as they were by the constitution from 
all participation in the treaty making power, ought 
at least to be consulted, if not to have the principal 
agency in so interesting a national act. 

IX. The immense patronage of the president was 
objected to : because it placed in his hands the means 
of corrupting the congress, the navy, and army, and 
of distributing, moreover, throughout the society, a 
band of retainers in the shape of judges, revenue of- 
ficers, and tax-gatherers, which would render him 
irresistible in any scheme of ambition that he might 
meditate against the liberties of his country. 

X. The irresponsibility of the whole gang of fed- 
eral officers (as they were called) was objected to: 
there was indeed, in some instances, a power of im- 
peachment pretended to be given, but it was mere 
sham and mockery ; since, instead of being tried by 
a tribunal, zealous and interested to bring them to 
justice, they were to try each other for offences, in 
which, probably, they were all mutually implicated. 

XL It was insisted, that if we must adopt a con- 
stitution ceding away such vast powers, express and 
implied, and so fraught with danger to the liberties 
of the people, it ought at least to be guarded by a bill 
of rights : that in all free governments, and in the es- 
timation of all men attached to liberty, there were 



284 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

certain rights unalienable, imprescriptible, and of so 
sacred a character, that they could not be guarded 
with too much caution : among these were the liberty 
of speech and of the press. What security had we, 
that even these sacred privileges would not be in- 
vaded ? Concjress mieiht think it necessarv, in order 
to carry into effect the given powers, to silence the 
clamors and censures of the people ; and, if they med- 
itated views of lawless ambition, they certainly will 
so think: what then would become of the liberty of 
speech and of the press ? 

Several objections of a minor character were urged, 
such as: 

1. That the ambiguity with which the direction for 
publishing the proceedings of congress was expressed, 
" from time to time,'' pvit it in their power to keep 
the people in utter ignorance of their proceedings ; 
and thus to seize the public liberties ^' by ambuscade." 

9. That the 9th section of the 1st article, profess- 
ii^g to set out restrictions upon the power of congress, 
gave them, by irresistible implication, the sovereign 
power over all subjects not excepted, and thus en- 
larged their constructive powers, ad infinitum, 

3. That congress had the power of involving the 
southern states in all the horrors which would result 
from a total emancipation of their slaves ; and that 
the northern states, uninterested in the consequences 
of such an act, had a controlling majority, which 
possessed the power, and would not probably want the 
inclination to effect it. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 285 

4. That the pay of the members was by the con- 
stitution to be fixed by themselves, without limitation 
or restraint. " They may, therefore," said Mr. 
Henry, " indulge themselves in the fullest extent. 
They will make their compensation as high as they 
please. I suppose, if they be good men, their own 
delicacy will lead them to be satisfied with moderate 
salaries. But there is no security for this, should 
they be otherwise inclined."^ 

These objections, and many others which it were 
tedious to enumerate, were pressed upon the house 
day after day, with all the powers of reasoning and 
of eloquence ; and where argument and declamation 
were found unavailing, the force of ridicule was 
freely resorted to. Thus, in relation to the objection 
of consolidation, Mr. Madison had said : — ^^ There 

* The American people have always been supersensi- 
tive of the salaries of officials. A striking instance of 
this occurred in the 42d Congress, at the beginning of 
President Grant's second term of service. A bill was in- 
troduced by General N. P. Banks, increasing the paj ^f 
Congressmen, Senators, Judges, and the President. The 
only real objection to the bill was that it was retroactive, 
— a feature that is well nigh universal in military com- 
missions and is common in some classes of laws. In all 
other respects the bill was without fault. Nevertheless, 
the public greeted it with a storm of indignation, and the 
law is to this day known as the Salary Grab. Many of 
the Congressmen who voted for the bill were defeated 
for re-election on that account solely; for the general pub- 
lic did not reflect that congress was the only body that 
had power to order the needed increase of pay. The 
Salary Grab contributed also to impair the popularity of 
President Grant who signed the bill. 



286 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

are a number of opinic^ as to the nature of the gov- 
ernment ; but the principal question is, whether it be 
a federal or consolidated government. In order to 
judge properly of the question before us, we must 
consider it minutely in its principal parts. I con- 
ceive, myself, that it is of a mixed nature : — it is, 
in a manner, unprecedented : we cannot find one ex- 
press example in the experience of the world — it 
stands by itself. In some respects, it is a government 
of a federal nature; in others, it is of a consolidated 
nature." He then proceeds to point out and dis- 
criminate its federal from its national features. Mr. 
Corbin, on the same side, expressed himself satisfied 
with Mr. Madison's definition of the instrument ; 
but begged leave to call it by another name, viz., ^'a 
representative federal government, as contradistin- 
guished from a confederacy.'^ 

Mr. Henry, in replying to these gentlemen, says: 
— " This government is so new, it wants a name ! I 
wish its other novelties were as harmless as this. We 
are told, however, that collectively taken it is with- 
out an example ! — that it is national in this part, and 
federal in that part, &c. We may be amused, if we 
please, by a treatise of political anatomy. In the 
brain it is national : the stamina are federal — some 
limbs are federal, others national. The senators are 
voted for by the state legislatures, so far it is federal. 
Individuals choose the members of the first branch, 
here it is national. It is federal in conferring gen- 
eral powers; but national in retaining them. It is 
not to be supported by the states, the pockets of in- 
dividuals are to be searched for its maintenance. 
What signifies it to me, that you have the most cu- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 287 

rious anatomical description of it in its creation ? To 
all the common purposes of legislation, it is a great 
consolidation of government. You are not to have 
the right to legislate in any but trivial cases ; you are 
not to touch private contracts : you are not to have the 
right of having armies in your own defence: you 
cannot be trusted with dealing out justice between 
man and man. What shall the states have to do? 
Take care of the poor, repair and make highways, 
erect bridges, and so on, and so on! Abolish the 
state legislatures at once. What purposes should they 
be continued for ? Our legislature will indeed be a 
ludicrous spectacle — 180 men, marching in solemn 
farcical procession, exhibiting a mournful proof .of 
the lost liberty of their country, without the power of 
restoring it. But, sir, we have the consolation, that it- 
is a mixed government ! that is, it may work sorely in 
your neck; but you will have some comfort by say- 
ing, that it was a federal government in its origin! '^ 
ilotwithstanding this ridicule, however, thrown 
on some of their arguments, Mr. Henry did not fail, 
on every proper occasion, to do justice to the great 
abilities and merits of his adversaries. To the elo- 
quence of Col. Innis he paid a memorable tribute; 
and in one short sentence sketched a picture of it so 
vivid, and so faithful, that it would be injustice to 
both gentlemen not to give it a place : — " That hon- 
orable gentleman is endowed with great eloquence — 
eloquence splendid, magnificent, and sufficient to 
shake the human mind ! " No circumlocution could 
have described with half the spirit and truth, that 
rare union of pomp and power which distinguished 
Col. Innis; whose car of triumph was always a 



288 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

chariot of war; pugnce vel pompce, pariter aptus 
(equally fitted for pomp and struggle.) 

One of the most singular instances on record of 
the fallacy of the human memory, occurred in the 
course of these dehates : this was in relation to the 
case of Josiah Philips, which has been already men- 
tioned. Mr. Randolph, in answer to Mr. Henry's 
panegyrics on the constitution of the state of Vir- 
ginia, brought forward that case in the following 
terms: — " There is one example of this violation (of 
the state constitution) in Virginia, of a most strik- 
ing and shocking nature ; an example so horrid, that 
if I conceived my country would passively permit a 
repetition of it, dear as it is to me, I would seek 
means of expatriating myself from it. A man, who 
was then a citizen, was deprived of his life thus: — 
from a mere reliance on general reports, a gentle- 
man in the house of delegates informed the house, 
that a certain man (Josiah Philips) had committed 
several crimes, and was running at large perpetrating 
other crimes; he, therefore, moved for leave to at- 
taint him ; he obtained that leave instantly ; no sooner 
did he obtain it, than he drew from his pocket a 
bill ready written for that effect; it was read three 
times in one day, and carried to the senate ; I will not 
say that it passed the same day through the senate; 
but he was attained very speedily and precipitately 
without any proof better than vagTie reports I With- 
out being confronted with his accusers and witnesses ; 
without the privilege of calling for evidence in his 
behalf, he was sentenced to death, and was after- 
wards actually executed. Was this arbitrary depriva- 
tion of life, the dearest gift of God to man, consistent 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 289 

with the genius of a republican government ? Is this 
compatible with the spirit of freedom ? This, sir, has 
made the deepest impression in my heart, and I can- 
not contemplate it without horror.'' 

JSTow the reader, by adverting to the statement 
which has been already given of Philip's case,* and 
which is founded on record, will find that there is not 
one word of this eloquent invective that is consistent 
with the facts. What makes the case still more 
strange is, that Mr. Randolph, at the happening of 
the occurrence to which he alludes, held the double 
office of clerk of the house of delegates, and attorney- 
general of the commonwealth ; in the first character, 
he had, only ten years before, been officially informed, 
that the bill of attainder had not been founded on 
report, but on a communication of the governor, en- 
closing the letter of the commanding officer of the 
militia in the quarter which was the theatre of 
Philip's ravages; that that letter had been in due 
form committed to the whole house on the state of the 
commonwealth, whose resolutions led to the bill in 
question ; and that the bill, instead of being read 
three times in one day, had been regularly, and ac- 
cording to the forms of the house, read on three sev- 
eral days ; while in his character of attorney-general, 
he had himself indicted and prosecuted Philip for 
highway robbery — confronted him with the witnesses, 
whose names are given at the foot of the indictment, 
still extant among our records, and endorsed in Mr. 
Randolph's own hand-writing ; convicted him on that 
charge, on which charge, and on which alone, Philips 

* See above, p. 218. 
19 



290 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

was regularly sentenced^Rid executed. Yet, not only 
Mr. Kandolph, but all the other members who had oc- 
casion to advert to the circumstance, and even Mr. 
Henry, on whom it is supposed to have been designed 
to bear, proceed in their several criminations and de- 
fences, upon the admission that Philips had fallen a 
victim to the bill of attainder. Had the incident been 
of a common character, there would have been noth- 
ing strange in its having been forgotten ; but it is one 
of so singular and interesting a nature, that this total 
oblivion of it by the principal actors themselves be- 
comes a matter of curious history. 

The convention had been attended, from its com- 
mencement, by a vast concourse of citizens of all 
ages and conditions. The interest so universally felt 
in the question itself, and not less the transcendent 
talents which were engaged in its discussion, pre- 
sented such attractions as could not be resisted. In- 
dustry deserted its pursuits, and even dissipation 
gave up its objects, for the superior enjoyments which 
were presented by the hall of the convention, ^ot 
only the people of the town and neighborhood, but 
gentlemen from every quarter of the state, were seen 
thronging to the metropolis, and speeding their eager 
way to the building in Avhich the convention held 
its meetings. Day after day, from morning till night, 
the galleries of the house were continually filled with 
an anxious crowd, who forgot the inconvenience of 
their situation in the excess of their enjoyment ; and 
far from giving any interruption to the course of the 
debate, increased its interest and solemnity by their 
silence and attention. 'No bustle, no motion, no 
sound was heard among them, save only a slight move- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 291 

ment when some new speaker arose, whom they were 
all eager to see as well as to hear; or when some 
masterstroke of eloquence shot thrilling along their 
nerves, and extorted an involuntary and inarticulate 
murmur. Day after day was this banquet of the 
mind and of the heart spread before them, with a 
delicacy and variety which could never cloy. There 
every taste might find its peculiar gratifications, the 
man of wit, the man of feeling, the critic, the philoso- 
pher, the historian, the metaphysician, the lover of 
logic, the admirer of rhetoric; every man who had 
an eye for the beauty of action, or an ear for the har- 
mony of sound, or a soul for the charms of poetic 
fancy — in short, every one who could see, or hear, or 
feel, or understand, might find in the wanton pro- 
fusion and prodigality of that attic feast, some deli- 
cacy adapted to his peculiar taste. Every mode of at- 
tack and of defence, of which the human mind is ca- 
pable, in decorous debate — every species of weapon 
and armor, offensive and defensive, that could be 
used with advantage, from the Roman javelin to the 
Parthian arrow, from the cloud of x^neas to the 
shield of Achilles — all that could be accomplished by 
human strength and almost more than human activ- 
ity, was seen exhibited on that celebrated floor. 'Nov 
did the debate become oppressive by its unvarying 
formalitv. The stateliness and sternness of extended 
argument were frequently relieved by quick and ani- 
mated dialogue. Sometimes the conversation would 
become familiar and friendly. The combatants them- 
selves would seem pleased with this relief; forget 
that they were enemies, and by a sort of informal 
truce put off their armor, and sit down amicably to- 



292 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

gether to repose, as it were, in the shade of the same 
tree. By this agreeable intermixture of colloquial 
sprightliness and brilliancy with profound, and 
learned, and vigorous argument, of social courtesy 
with heroic gallantry, the audience, far from being 
fatigued with the discussion, looked with regret to 
the hour of adjournment. 

In this great competition of talents, Mr. Henry^s 
powers of debate still shone pre-eminent. They were 
now exhibiting themselves in a new aspect. Hitherto 
his efforts, however splendid, had been comparatively 
short and occasional. In the house of burgesses in 
1765, in the congress of 1774, and the state conven- 
tion of 1775, he had exhibited the impetuous charge 
of the gallant Francis the First : * but now, in com- 
bination with this fiery force, he was displaying all 
the firm and dauntless constancy of Charles the 
Fifth. f 'No shock of his adversaries could move him 
from his ground. His resources never failed. His 
eloquence was poured from inexhaustible fountains, 

♦Francis I. (1494-1547), King of France, and Charles 
V. (1500-58), King of Spain, came into collision in 1519, 
as candidates for the empire of Germany. Shortly after 
this, Charles V., Henry VIH., and Pope Leo X., formed a 
league against Francis and reduced him to submission. 
The decisive battle was fought at Pavia in 1525, where 
Francis commanded in person, was twice wounded, and 
was taken prisoner. It was after this catastrophe that he 
wrote to his mother the famous letter: "Madame, all is 
lost save honor." 

t The empire of Charles V. was the largest empire since 
that of Charlemagne, and the emperor became noted for 
his cruel persecution of the Protestants. In 1555 he ab- 
dicated in favor of his more cruel son, Philip II. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 293 

and assumed every variety of hue and form and mo- 
tion, which could delight or persuade, instruct or as- 
tonish. Sometimes it was the limpid rivulet spark- 
ling down the mountain's side, and winding its silver 
course between margins of moss, then gradually swell- 
ing to a holder stream, it roared in the headlong cat- 
aract, and spread its rainbows to the svm ; now, it 
flowed on in tranquil majesty, like a river of the west, 
reflecting from its polished surface, forest, and cliff, 
and sky ; anon, it was the angry ocean, chafed by the 
tempest, hanging its billows, with deafening clamors, 
among the cracking shrouds, or hurling them in sub- 
lime defiance at the storm that frowned above. 

Toward the close of the session, an incident oc- 
curred of a character so extraordinary as to deserve 
particular notice. The question of adoption or re- 
jection was now approaching. The decision was still 
uncertain, and every mind and every heart was filled 
with anxiety. Mr. Henry partook most deeply of this 
feeling; and while engaged, as it were in his last 
effort, availed himself of the strong sensations which 
he knew to pervade the house, and made an appeal 
to it which, in point of sublimity, has never been sur- 
passed in any age or country of the world. After 
describing, in accents which spoke to the soul, and to 
which every other bosom deeply responded, the awful 
immensity of the question to the present and future 
generations, and the throbbing apprehensions with 
which he looked to the issue, he passed from the house 
and from the earth, and looking as he said, " beyond 
that horizon which binds mortal eyes," he pointed, 
with a countenance and action that made the blood 
run back -upon the aching heart, to those celestial 



294 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

beings who were hovering over the scene, and waiting 
with anxiety for a decision which involved the hap- 
piness or misery of more than half the human race. 
To those beings — with the same thrilling look and 
action, he had jnst addressed an invocation that made 
every nerve shudder with supernatural horror, when, 
lo ! a storm at that instant arose, which shook the 
whole building, and tlie spirits whom he had called 
seemed to have come at his bidding. Xor did his 
eloquence, or the storm, immediately cease; but 
availing himself of the incident, with a master's art, 
he seemed to mix in the fight of his ethereal auxil- 
iaries, and '' rising on the wings of the tempest, to 
seize upon the artillery of Heaven, and direct its 
fiercest thunders against the heads of his adversaries." 
The scene became insupportable ; and the house rose 
without the formality of adjournment, the members 
rushing from their seats with precipitation and con- 
fusion."^ 

But all his efforts were in vain. Either the justice 
of the opposing cause, or the powers of his adver- 
saries, or the prejudged opinions and instnictions of 
the members, rendered his reasoning and his elo- 
quence equally imavailing. Out of a house, composed 

* The words above quoted are those of Judge Archibald 
Stewart, a gentleman who was present, a member of the 
convention, and one of those who voted against the side 
of the question supported by Mr. Henry. The incident, 
as given in the text, is wholly founded on the statements 
of those who were witnesses of the scene; and by compar- 
ing it with the corresponding passage in the printed de- 
bates the reader may decide how far these are to be relied 
on as specimens of Mr. Henry's eloquence. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 295 

of one liundred and sixty-eight members, tbe question 
of ratiiication was carried by a majority of ten. Mr. 
Henry himself seemed to have a presage of this result. 
After the storm which has been mentioned, Colonel 
Innis, who, in his character of attorney-general, had 
been hitherto attending a court of oyer and terminer, 
came into the house, and the debate Avas renewed. 
Mr. Henry, in answering him, closed the last speech 
which he delivered on the floor, with the following 
remarks : — 

^' I beg pardon of this house for having taken up" 
more time than came to my share ; and I thank them 
for the patience and polite attention with which I 
have been heard. If I shall be in the minoritv, I 
shall have those painful sensations which arise from a 
conviction of being overpowered in a good cause. 
Yet, I will be a peaceable citizen I My head, my hand, 
and my heart, shall be free to retrieve the loss of 
liberty, and remove the defects of that system, in a 
constitutional way. I wish not to go to violence, but 
will wait with hopes that the spirit which predomi- 
nated in the revolution is not yet gone : nor the cause 
of those who are attached to the revolution yet lost. 
I shall therefore patiently wait, in expectation of 
seeing that government changed, so as to be compati- 
ble with the safety, liberty, and happiness of the 
people.'' 

The objections, however, which had been urged, 
and the arguments by which they had been supported, 
although they had not succeeded in preventing the rat- 
ification of the constitution, had produced a very 
serious effect on the house. Before their final dissolu- 
tion, they agreed to a bill of rights, and a series of 



296 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

amendments (twenty ilKiumber) embracing and pro- 
viding for the objections of Mr. Henry and his asso- 
ciates. A copy of these amendments, engrossed on 
parchment, and signed by the president of the con- 
vention, was ordered to be transmitted to congress, 
together with the instrument of ratification. Similar 
copies were ordered to be transmitted to the executives 
and legislatures of the several states ; and fifty copies 
of the ratification and proposed amendments were 
ordered to be struck for the use of each county in this 
commonwealth. 

Mr. Henry lost no ground with the people, at the 
time, for the part which he had take» on this oc- 
casion ; and when afterward the constitution began 
to develop its tendencies by practical operation, so 
many of his predictions were believed by a majority 
of the people of Virginia to be fulfilled, and so many 
more in a rapid progress of fulfilment, that his char- 
acter for political penetration rose higher than ever. 
That he had lost no ground at the time, two signal 
proofs w^ere given in the session of assembly imme- 
diately following that of the convention. The latter 
body rose on the 27th of June, and the assembly met 
on the 20th of October following. This interval had 
been too short to permit the subsidence of that high 
excitement, which the canvass of the constitution had 
provoked ; and the assembly was consequently dis- 
criminated by feelings of party as strong and de- 
termined, as those which had characterized the con- 
vention itself. 

The constitution having been adopted by a suffi- 
cient number of states to carry it into effect, it be- 
came necessary at this session to provide for its or- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 297 

ganization, and, among other measures, to choose two 
senators to represent this state, in the congress of the 
United States. For this office, Mr. Madison was pre- 
sented by those who were at that time distinguished 
by the appellation of federalists; by which nothing 
more was then meant, than that they were advocates 
for the adoption of the new federal constitution. The 
anti-federalists, on the contrary, who were alarmed 
by the vast powers which they considered as granted 
by the constitution, regarded it as a salutary check 
on the constructive extension of those powers, and as 
the best means of securing those amendments which 
they deemed essential to the liberties of the people, 
that the first congress should be composed of men of 
their own sentiments. In opposition to Mr. Madison, 
therefore, Mr. Henry took the unusual liberty of \ 
nominating two candidates, Mr. Richard H. Lee and r 
Mr. Grayson ; and, notw^ithstanding the great acces- j 
sion of character which Mr. Madison had acquired by I 
the ability with which he had espoused the ratifica- ! 
tion of the constitution, those gentlemen were elected ' 
by a considerable majority. 

At the same session of the assembly, Mr. Henry, 
whose mind seems to have been filled with the most 
oppressive solicitude by the unconditional adoption 
of the constitution, and who brooded with corre- 
spondent anxiety over the most effective means of 
procuring amendments, moved, in the committee of 
the whole house, the following preamble and resolu- 
tions : — 

" Whereas the convention of delegates of the peo- 
ple of this commonwealth did ratify a constitution 



298 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

or form of government^r the United States, referred 
to themvfor their consideration, and did also declare 
that sundry amendments to exceptionable parts of the 
same ought to be adopted, and whereas the subject- 
matter of the amendments agreed to by the said con- 
vention involves all the great, essential, and unalien- 
able rights, liberties, and privileges of freemen ; 
many of which, if not cancelled, are rendered inse- 
cure under the said constitution, until the same shall 
\ be altered and amended : — 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee, that, for quieting the minds of the good citi- 
zens of this commonwealth, and securing their dearest 
rights and liberties, and preventing those disorders 
which must arise under a government not founded in 
the confidence of the people, application be made to 
the congress of the United States, as soon as they 
shall assemble under the said constitution, to call a 
convention for proposing amendments to the same, ac- 
cording to the mode therein directed. 

" Eesolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee, that a committee ought to be appointed to 
draw up and report to the house, a proper instrument 
of writing, expressing the sense of the general as- 
sembly, and pointing out the reasons which induce 
them to urge their application thus early, for the call- 
ing the aforesaid convention of the states. 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee, that the said committee ought to be instructed 
/to prepare the draft of a letter, in answer to one re- 
' ceived from his excellency George Clinton, Esq., pres- 
ident of the convention of I^ew York — and a circular 
letter, on the aforesaid subject, to the other states in 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 299 

the union, expressive of the wish of the general as- 
seml 'y of this commonwealth, that they may join in 
au application to the new congress, to appoint a con- 
vention of the states so soon as the congress shall as- 
semble under the new constitution." ^ 

These were carried in committee, and immediately 
reported to the house; when a motion was made to 
amend them, by striking out from the word 
'^ whereas," and substituting, in lieu of the original, 
the following preamble and resolutions : — 

" Whereas, the delegates appointed to represent the 
good people of this commonwealth, in the late con- 
vention held in the month of June last, did by their 
act of the 25th of the same month, assent to and 
ratify the constitution, recommended on the 17th day 
of September, 178Y, by the federal convention for 
the government of the United States, declaring them- 
selves, with a solemn appeal to the Searcher of 
hearts for the purity of their intentions, under the 
conviction, ' that whatsoever imperfections might ex- 
ist in the constitution, ought rather to be examined 
in the mode prescribed therein, than to bring the 
Union into danger by a delay, with a hope of obtain- 
ing amendments previous to the ratification.' And 
whereas, in pursuance of the said declaration, the 
same convention did, by their subsequent act of the 
27th June, aforesaid, agree to such amendments to the 
said constitution of the government for the United 
States, as were by them deemed necessary to be recom- 
mended to the consideration of the congress which 
shall first assemble under the said constitution, to 
be acted upon according to the mode prescribed iu 



300 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the fifth article thereol^ at the same time enjoia- 
ing it upon their representatives in congress, to exert 
all their influence, and use all reasonable and legal 
methods, to obtain a ratification of the foregoing 
alterations and provisions, in the manner provided 
by the fifth article of the said constitution, and in all 
congressional laws to be passed in the meantime, 
to conform to the spirit of those amendments as far as 
the said constitution would admit. 

'' Kesolved, therefore, that it is the opinion of this 
committee, that an application ought to be made, in 
the name and on the behalf of the legislature of this 
commonwealth, to the congress of the United States, 
so soon as they shall assemble under the said con- 
stitution, to pass an act recommending to the legisla- 
tures of the several states, the ratification of a bill 
of rights, and of certain articles of amendment, pro- 
posed by the convention of this state, for the adop- 
tion of the United States; and that, until the said 
act shall be ratified in pursuance of the fifth article 
of the said constitution of the government for the 
United States, congress do conform their ordinances 
to the true spirit of the said bill of rights and articles 
of amendment. 

^^ Resolved, that it is the opinion of this committee, 
that the executive ought to be instructed to transmit 
a copy of the foregoing resolution to the congress of 
the United States, so soon as they shall assemble, and 
to the legislatures and executive authorities of each 
state in the union." 

On this proposal of amendment a very animated 
debate ensued, which resulted in its rejection, and 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 301 

the adoption of the original report, by a majority of 
more than two for one. 

These two measures— the election of the senators 
named by Mr. Henry, in opposition to so formidable 
a competitor as Mr. Madison, and the carrying so 
strong a measure as the call of a new continental con- 
tention, for the purpose of revising and altering 
the constitution— certainly furnish the most decisive 
proof, that his influence remained unimpaired by the 
part which he had taken in the convention of the 

It was in the course of the debate which has been 
just mentioned, that Mr. Henry was driven from his 
usual decorum into a retaliation, that became a theme 
of great public merriment at the time, and has con- 
tinued ever since one of the most popular anecdotes 
that relate to him. He had insisted, it seems, with 
great force, that the speedy adoption of the amend- 
ments was the only measure that could secure the 
great and unalienable rights of the freemen of this 
country, that the people w^ere known to be exceedingly 
anxious for this measure, that it was the only step 
wdiich could reconcile them to the new constitution, 
and assure that public contentment, security, and 
confidence, which were the sole objects of government, 
and w^ithout w^hich no government could stand ; that 
whatever might be the individual sentiments of gen- 
tlemen, yet the wishes of the people, the foundation 
of all authority, being known, they w^ere bound to 
conform to those wishes; that, for his own part, he 
considered his opinion as nothing, w^hen opposed to 
those of his constituents ; and that he was ready and 
willing at all times and on all occasions, "to bow, 



S02 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

with the utmost defere^p^, to the majesty of the peo- 
ple/' — A young gentleman, on the federal side of tlie 
house, who had been a member of the late convention, 
and had in that body, received, on one occasion, a 
slight touch of Mr. Henry's lash, resolved now, in an 
ill-fated moment, to make a set charge upon the vet- 
eran, and brave him to the combat. He possessec 
fancy, a graceful address, and an easy, sprightly elo- 
cution ; and had been sent by his father, (an opulent 
man, and an officer of high rank and trust under the 
regal government) to finish his education in the col- 
leges of England, and acquired the polish of the court 
of St. James ; where he had passed the whole period of 
the American revolution. Returning with advantages 
which were rare in this country, and with the con- 
fidence natural to his years, presuming a little too 
far upon those advantages, he seized upon the words, 
" bow to the majesty of the people," which Mr. 
Henry had used, and rung the changes upon them 
with considerable felicity. He denied the solicitude of 
the people for the amendments, so strenuously urged 
on the other side ; he insisted that the people thought 
their '^ great and unalienable rights " sufficiently se- 
cured by the constitution which they had adopted: 
that the preamble of the constitution itself, which 
was now to be considered as the language of the peo- 
ple, declared its objects to be, among others, the se- 
curity of those very rights ; the people then declare 
the constitution the giiarantee of their rights, while 
the gentleman, in opposition to this public declara- 
tion of their sentiments, insists upon his amend7nents 
as furnishing that guarantee; yet the gentleman tells 
lis, that ^' he bows to the majesty of the people ; " 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 303 

these words he accompanied with a most graceful 
bow\ " The gentleman/' he proceeded, '^ had set 
himself in opposition to the will of the people, 
throughout the whole course of this transaction : the 
people approved of the constitution : the suffrage of 
their constituents in the last convention had proved 
it, the people wished, the most anxiously wished, the 
adoption of the constitution, as the only means of 
saving the credit and the honor of the country, and 
producing the stability of the union : the gentleman, 
on the contrary, had placed himself at the head of 
those who opposed its adoption — ^yet, the gentleman 
is ever ready and willing, at all times and on all oc- 
casions, to bow to the majesty of the people," (with 
another profound and graceful bow). Thus he pro- 
ceeded, through a number of animated sentences, 
winding up each one with the same words, sarcas- 
tically repeated, and the accompaniment of the same 
graceful obesiance. Among other things, he said : " It 
was of little importance whether a country ruled 
by a despot, Avitli a tiara on his head, or by a dema- 
gogue in a red cloak, a caul-bare wig," &c., (describ- 
ing Mr. Henry's dress so minutely, as to draw every 
eye upon him,) '^although he should profess on all 
occasions to bow to the majesty of the people." 

A gentleman who was present, and who, struck 
with the singularity of the attack, had the curiosity 
to number the vibrations on those words, and the ac- 
companying action, states, that he counted thirteen 
of the most graceful bows he had ever beheld. The 
friends of Mr. Henry considered such an attack on a 
man of his years and high character as very little 
short of sacrilege ; on the other side of the house, there 



304 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

was, indeed, a smotli^|^l sort of dubious laugli, in 
which there seemed to be at least as much apprehen- 
sion as enjoyment. Mr. Henry had heard the whole 
of it without any apparent mark of attention. 

The young gentleman having finished his philipic, 
very much at least to his own satisfaction, took his 
seat, with the gayest expression of triumph in his 
countenance — " Heul Nescia mens JiomiJium fati, 
soriisque futuroe!^'''^ Mr. Henry raised himself up, 
heavily, and with affected awkwardness — '^ Mr. 
Speaker," said he, ^^ I am a plain man, and have 
been educated altogether in Virginia. My whole life 
has been spent among planters, and other plain men 
of similar education, who have never had the advan- 
tage of that polish which a court alone can give, and 
which the gentleman over the way has so happily ac- 
quired ; indeed, sir, the gentleman's employments and 
mine (in common with the great mass of his country- 
men) have been as widely different as our fortunes; 
for while that gentleman was availing himself of the 
opportunity which a splendid fortune afforded him, 
of acquiring a foreign education, mixing among the 
great, attending levees and courts, basking in the 
beams of royal favor at St. James', and exchanging 
courtesies with crowned heads, I was engaged in the 
arduous toils of the revolution ; and was probably as 
far from thinking of acquiring those polite accom- 
plishments which the gentleman has so successfully 
cultivated, as that gentleman then was from sharing 
in the toils and dangers in which his unpolished 

* Whew! The human mind doesn't know the fate and 
fortune of the future. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 305 

countrymen were engaged. I will not, therefore, pre- 
sume to vie with the gentleman in those courtly ac- 
complishments, of which he has just given the house 
so agreeable a specimen; yet such a bow as I can 
make, shall be ever at the service of the people/' — 
Herewith, although there was no man who could 
make a more graceful bow than Mr. Henry, he made 
one so ludicrously awkward and clownish, as took the 
house by surprise, and put them into a roar of laugh- 
ter. — " The gentleman, I hope, will commiserate the 
disadvantages of education under which I have la- 
bored, and will be pleased to remember, that I have 
never been a favorite with that monarch, whose gra- 
cious smile he has had the happiness to enjoy.'' He 
pursued this contrast of situations and engagements, 
for fifteen or twenty minutes, without a smile, and 
without the smallest token of resentment, either in 
countenance, expression, or manner. ^^ You would 
almost have sworn," says a correspondent, " that he 
thought himself making his apology for his own awk- 
wardness, before a full drawing-room at St. James\ 
I believe there was not a person that heard him, the 
sufferer himself excepted, who did not feel every risi- 
ble nerve affected. His adversary meantime hung 
down his head, and sinking lower and lower, until 
he was almost concealed behind the interposing 
forms, submitted to the discipline as quietly as a 
Russian malefactor, who had been beaten with the 
knout, till all sense of feeling was lost." 

, The documents reported and adopted by the house 
of delegates, in consequence of the foregoing resolu- 



306 t-IFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tions, are the followif^ — which are given because 
they are said to be from the pen of Mr. Henry : — 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, 
that an application ought to be made, in the name 
and on behalf of the legislature of this common- 
wealth, to the congress of the United States, in the 
following words, to wit : — 



" The good people of this commonwealth, 

" In convention assembled, having ratified the con- 
stitution submitted to their consideration, this legis- 
lature has, in conformity to that act, and the reso- 
lutions of the United States in congress assembled, 
to them transmitted, thought proper to make the ar- 
rangements that were necessary for carrying it into 
effect. Having thus shown themselves obedient to 
the voice of their constituents, all America will find 
that so far as it depends on them, that plan of govern- 
ment will be carried into immediate operation. But 
the sense of the people of Virginia would be but in 
part complied with, and but little regarded, if we 
went no further. In the very moment of adoption, 
and coeval with the ratification of the new plan of 
government, the general voice of the convention of 
this state pointed to objects no less interesting to the 
people we represent, and equally entitled to your at- 
tention. At the same time that, from motives of af- 
fection for our sister states, the convention yielded 
their assent to the ratification, they gave the most un- 
equivocal proofs that they dreaded its operation 
under the present form. 

" In acceding to a government under this impres- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. SOY 

sion, painful must have been the prospect, had they 
not derived consolation from a full expectation of its 
imperfections being speedily amended. In this re- 
source, therefore, they placed their confidence — a 
confidence that will continue to support them, while 
they have reason to believe they have not calculated 
upon it in vain. 

" In making kno^vn to you the objections of the 
people of this commonwealth to the new plan of gov- 
ernment, we deem it unnecessary to enter into a par- 
ticular detail of its defects, which they consider as 
involving all the great and unalienable rights of 
freemen: For their sense on this subject, we refer 
you to the proceedings of their late convention, and 
the sense of this general assembly, as expressed in 
their resolutions of the day of . 

" We think proper, however, to declare that, in 
our opinion, as those objections were not founded on 
speculative theory, but deduced from principles 
which have been established by the melancholy ex- 
ample of other nations, in different ages, so they 
never will be removed, until the cause itself shall 
cease to exist. The sooner, therefore, the public ap- 
prehensions are quieted, and the government is pos- 
sessed of the confidence of the people, the more salu- 
tary will be its operations, and the longer its dura- 
tion. 

" The cause of amendments we consider as a com- 
mon cause ; and since concessions have been made 
from political motives, which we conceive may en- 
danger the republic, we trust that a commendable 
zeal will be showTi for obtaining those provisions, 
which experience has taught us are necessary to se- 



308 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

cure from danger the ilflalienable rights of human 
nature. 

" The anxiety with which our countrymen press 
for the accomplishment of this important end, will 
ill admit of delay. The slow forms of congressional 
discussion and recommendation, if indeed thev should 
ever agree to any change, would we fear be less cer- 
tain of success. Happily for their wishes, the con- 
stitution hath presented an alternative, by submit- 
ting the decision to a convention of the states. To 
this, therefore, we resort, as the source from whenco 
they are to derive relief from their present appre- 
hensions. We do, therefore, in behalf of our con- 
stituents, in the most earnest and solemn manner, 
make this application to congress, that a convention 
be immediatly called, of deputies from the several 
states, with full power to take into their consideration 
the defects of this constitution* that have been sug- 
gested by the state conventions, and report such 
amendments thereto as they shall find best suited to 
j)romote our common interests, and secure to our- 
selves, and our latest posterity, the great and unalien- 
able rights of mankind." 

Draft of a letter to Governor Clinton on the same 
subject : — 

'' Sir, 

" The letter from the convention of the state of 
New York hath been laid before us since our present 
session. The subject which it contemplated was 
taken up, and we have the pleasure to inform you of 
the entire concurrence in sentiment, between that 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 309 

honorable body and the representatives in senate and 
assembly of the freemen of this commonwealth. The 
propriety of immediately calling a convention of the 
states, to take into consideration the defects of the 
constitution was admitted ; and in consequence 
thereof, an application agreed to, to be presented to 
the congress, so soon as it shall be convened for the ac- 
complishment of that important end. We herewith 
transmit to your excellency, a copy of this applica- 
tion, which we request may be laid before your as- 
sembly at their next meeting. We take occasion to 
express our most earnest wishes that it may obtain 
the approbation of I^ew York, and of all other sister 
states." 

Draft of a letter to the several states on the same 
subject : — 

^^The freeman of this commomvealth, in conven- 
tion assembled, having, at the same time that they 
ratified the federal constitution, expressed a desire 
that many parts, which they considered as exception- 
able parts, should be amended — the general assem- 
bly, as well from a sense of duty as a conviction of 
its defects, have thought proper to take the earliest 
measures in their power, for the accomplishment of 
this important object. They have accordingly agreed 
upon an application to be presented to the congress, 
so soon as it shall be assembled, requesting that hon- 
orable body to call a convention of deputies from the 
several states, to take the same into their considera- 
tion, and report such amendments as they shall find 
best calculated to answer the purpose. As we con- 



310 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ceive that all the good ^ople of the United States 
are equally interested in obtaining those amendments 
that have been proposed, we trust that there will be 
a harmony in their sentiments and measures, upon 
this very interesting subject. We herewith transmit 
to you a copy of this application, and take the liberty 
to subjoin our earnest wishes that it may have your 
concurrence." 

In the two remaining years during which Mr. 
Henry continued a member of the assembly, I find 
nothing worthy of particular remark. In the spring 
of 1791, he declined a re-election, with the purpose 
of bidding a final adieu to public life : and although 
the tender of the most honorable appointments, the 
solicitations of his numerous friends and admirers, 
and ultimately his own wishes conspired to draw him 
from his retreat, he never again made his appearance 
in a public character. 



CHAPTEK IX. 

CASE OF THE BRITISH DEBTS. GENERAL LAW PRAC- 
TICE. 

1791-1794. 

Mr. Henry still continued, however, rather 
through necessity than choice, the practice of the. 
law, and in the fall of this year, 1791, a cause came 
on to be argued before the circuit court of the United 
States, in which he made what has been considered 
his most distinguished display of professional tal- 
ents. This was the celebrated case of the British 
debts; a case in which, from its great and extensive 
interest, the whole power of the bar of Virginia was 
embarked, and which was discussed with so much 
learning, argument, and eloquence, as to have placed 
that bar, in the estimation of the federal judges, (if 
the reports of the day may be accredited,) above all 
others in the United States. 

The cause was argued first in 1791, before Judges 
Johnson and Blair, of the supreme court, and Grif- 
fin, judge of the district; and afterwards in 1793, 
before Judges Jay and Iredell, and the same dis- 
trict judge. Mr. Henry was one of the counsel for 
the defendant, and argued the cause on both occa- 
sions. The deep interest of the question, in a na- 
tional point of view, and the manner in which it in- 

311 



312 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

volved more particularly the honor of the state of 
Virginia, and the fortunes of her citizens, had ex- 
cited Mr. Henry to a degree of preparation which 
he had never before made ; and he came forth, on this 
occasion, a perfect master of every principle of law, 
national and municipal, w^hich touched the subject 
of investigation in the most distant point. 

Of the first argument, a manuscript report is still 
extant, taken in shorthand by Mr. Robertson, the 
same gentleman who reported the debates of the con- 
vention of Virginia in 1788. The second argument 
was not reported; because, as Mr. Robertson states, 
he was informed by the counsel, that it would be noth- 
ing more than a repetition of the first ; and he adds, 
that he was afterward told it was . much inferior. 
What must we conclude, then, as to the powers dis- 
played by Mr. Henry in the first argument, when, 
in the course of the second and inferior one, he ex- 
torted from Judge Iredell, as he sat on the bench, 
the exclamation : " Gracious God ! — He is an orator 
indeed I " 

The report of the first argument, as deciphered by 
Mr. Robertson, from his stenographic notes, has been 
obligingly submitted to the author of these sketches, 
and he has extracted from it an imperfect analysis 
of Mr. Henry^s speech. The report may unques- 
tionably be relied on, so far as it professes to state 
the principles of law, and the suhsiance of the ar- 
guments urged by the very eminent counsel engaged 
in the cause ; and in this point of view, it is to be 
lamented that so valuable a work should still exist 
only in the form of a manuscript. But, as a sample 
of Mr. Henry^s peculiar and inimitable eloquence, it 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 313 

is subject to all the objections which have been al- 
ready urged to the printed debates of the Virginia 
convention. This manuscript report bears upon its 
face the most conchisive proof of its inaccuracy in 
those passages in which it attempts to exhibit either 
the captivating flights of Mr. Henry's fancy, or those 
unexpected and overwhelming assaults which he made 
upon the hearts, of his judges; for in all such pas- 
sages, (it is believed, without an exception,) the pen 
has been drawn through the sentence, as originally 
written, in such a manner, however, as to leave the 
words still legible; while the same thought, or some- 
thing like it, has been interlined in other words ; and 
even the interlineations themselves are oftener than 
otherwise erased, altered, and farther interlined, for 
the purpose of seeking to amend the expression: so 
that, in casting one's eyes over the manuscript report 
of Mr. Henry's speech, in order to single out the 
most brilliant passages, those which are the most 
blotted and blurred by erasures and interlineations 
may be selected at once, without the hazard of mis- 
take. Hence, it is obvious, that the reporter had not 
in his stenographic notes, the very expression of the 
speaker ; but some hint merely of the thought, which 
he was afterward unable to fill up to his own satis- 
faction. If further evidence on this Subject were 
required, it is found in this circumstance, that, on 
reading Mr. Eobertson's imitations of the splendid 
parts of Mr. Henry's speech to several of those who 
heard it delivered, there has not been one who has not 
turned off from the recital with the strongest ex- 
pressions of disappointment, and in several instances 
corrected by memory the language of the reporter. 



314 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

This explanation is equally due to the memory of 
Mr. Henry, to the reader, and to the author ; for the 
author is fully aware, that if the truth of the gen- 
eral character which he has attempted to give of Mr. 
Henry's eloquence shall he tested by those imperfect 
specimens to which, for want of more accurate ones, 
he has been compelled to resort, discredit will be 
thrown upon the whole work, and it will be regarded 
rather as romance than history. But the ingenuous 
and candid reader will look beyond those poor and 
wretched imitations, and my own equally poor and 
wretched descriptions, to that proof of Mr. Henry's 
eloquence which is furnished by its practical effects. 
Can there be any doubt of the supreme eloquence of 
that man who awakened and hushed at his pleasure, 
" the stormy wave of the multitude ? " who, by his 
powers of speech, roused the whole American people 
from north to south ? who put the revolution into 
motion, and bore it upon his shoulders, as Atlas is 
said to do the heavens ? to whose charms of persua- 
sion, not the rabble merely, but all ranks of society, 
have borne the most unanimous evidence ? who moved 
not merely the populace, the rocks, and stones of the 
field, but, '' by the summit took the moimtain-oak, 
and made him stoop to the plain ? " Instead, then, 
of comparing our descriptions of Mr. Henry's elo- 
quence with the specimens which his reporters have 
made of it, let the reader compare that description 
with the effects which it actually wrought, and the 
universal testimony which is borne to it, by the rap- 
turous admiration of every one who ever had the hap- 
piness to hear him ; and the author, so far from being 
afraid of the charge of exaggeration, will be appre- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 315 

tensive only of that of presumption, in attempting 
a description of powers so perfectly indescribable. 

But to return to his argument in the case of the 
British debts. In order to render intelligible the 
analysis which we propose to give to the reader, it 
will be necessary to prefix to it a statement of the 
case, of the pleadings, and the points made in argu- 
ment, by the opening counsel. 

William Jones, a British subject, as surviving 
partner of the mercantile house of Farrell and Jones, 
brought an action of debt, in the federal circuit court 
at Richmond, against Doctor Thomas Walker, of 
the county of Albemarle, in Virginia, on a bond 
which bore date before the revolutionary war; to 
wit, on the 11th of May, 1772. To this action the de- 
fendant pleaded five several pleas: — 

1. The first was, the plea of payment generally, on 
which the plaintiff took issue; but it was not tried, 
the cause having gone off on the demurrers growing 
out of the subsequent pleadings. 

2. In his second plea, the defendant relies on the 
act of sequestration, passed by the legislature of Vir- 
ginia during the revolutionary war, to wit, on the 
20th of October, 1777 ; by which it was enacted, that 
" it should be lawful for any citizen of this common- 
wealth, owing money to a subject of Great Britain, 
to pay the same, or any part thereof, from time to 
time, as he should think fit, into the loan office of 
the state ; taking thereout a certificate for the same in 
the name of the creditor, with an endorsement under 
the hand of the commissioner of the loan office, ex- 



316 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

pressing the name of We payee, delivering such cer- 
tificate to the governor and council, whose receipt 
should discharge him from so much of the deht:'^ — 
and the defendant exhibits the governor's receipt for 
2151Z. 18s. vv^hich he offers in bar to so much of the 
plaintiff's demand. 

3. In his third plea, he sets out the act of for- 
feiture, passed by the assembly on the third of May, 
1779, v^^hereby it was, among other things, enacted, 
'^ that all the property, real and personal, within the 
commonwealth, belonging at that time to any British 
subject, should be deemed to be vested in the common- 
wealth ; " as also the act of the 6th of May, 1782, 
whereby it was enacted, " that no demand whatso- 
ever, originally due to a subject of Great Britain, 
should be recoverable in any court of this common- 
wealth, although the same might be transferred to a 
citizen of this state, or to any other person capable of 
maintaining such action, unless the assignment had 
been or might be made for a valuable consideration 
hona fide paid before the first of May, 1777 : " and 
the plea insists that the debt, in the declaration men- 
tioned, was personal property of a British subject, 
forfeited to the commonwealth under the first-men- 
tioned act, and a demand, whose recovery in the 
courts of the commonwealth was barred by the last. 

4. The fourth plea takes the ground, that the king 
of Britain and his subjects were still alien enemies, 
and that the state of war still continued, on the 
ground of several direct violations of the definitive 
treatj^ of peace, which follow : — 1. In continuing to 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 317 

carry off the negroes in his possession, the property of 
American citizens, and refusing to deliver them, or 
permit the owners to take them, according to the ex- 
press stipulations of that treaty : — 2. In the forcible 
retention of the forts Niagara and Detroit, and the 
adjacent territory: — 3. In supplying the Indians, 
who were at war with the United States, with arms 
and ammunition, furnished within the territories of 
the United States, to wit, at the forts Detroit and 
Niagara, and at other forts and stations forcibly held 
by the troops and armies of the king, within the 
United States; and in purchasing from the Indians, 
within the territories aforesaid, the plunder taken 
by them in war from the United States, and the per- 
sons of American citizens made prisoners ; wdiich sev- 
eral infractions, the plea contends, had abolished the 
treaty of peace, and placed Great Britain and the 
United States in a state of war ; and that hence, the 
plaintiff, being an alien enemy, had no right to sue 
in the courts of the United States. 

5. The fifth plea sets forth, that at the time of con- 
tracting the debt in the declaration mentioned, the 
plaintiff and the defendant were fellow-subjects of 
the same king and government ; that on the fourth of 
July, 1776, the government of the British monarch 
in this counj;ry was dissolved, and the coallegiance of 
the parties severed ; whereby the plea contends, that 
the debt in the declaration mentioned was annulled. 

To the second plea the plaintiff replied, insisting 
on the treaty of peace of 1783, whereby it was stipu- 
lated, that creditors on either side should meet with 
no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full 



318 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

value, in sterling mon^, of all bona fide debts there- 
tofore contracted ; and also on the constitution of the 
United States of 178Y, by which it had been expressly 
declared, that treaties which were then made, or 
which should thereafter be made, under the author- 
ity of the United States, should be the supreme law 
of the land, any thing in the constitution, or the laws 
of any state, to the contrary notivithstariding. 

The defendant rejoined, that the treaty had been 
annulled by the infractions of it on the part of Great 
Britain, and so could not aid the cause of the plaint- 
iff ; and further, that the debt in the declaration men- 
tioned was not bona fide due, and owing to the plaint- 
iff at the date of the treaty, insomuch as the same (or 
at least 2151?. 18s. of it) had been discharged by 
the payment set forth in the second plea ; and hence, 
that it was not a subsisting debt, within the terms 
and provisions of the treaty. 

To this rejoinder, as also to the third, fourth, and 
fifth pleas of the defendant, the plaintiff demurred ; 
and the cause came on to be argued, on these demur- 
rers, at Richmond, on the 24th of ISTovember, 1791. 

The Virginian reader will readily estimate the 
splendor and power of the discussion in this case, 
when he learns the names of the counsel engaged in 
it; on the part of the plaintiff, then, were Mr. Ronald, 
Mr. Baker, Mr. Wickham, and Mr. Starke; and on 
that of the defendant, Mr. Henry, Mr. Marshall, 
(later chief justice of the United States,) Mr. Alex- 
ander Campbell, and Mr. Innis, the attorney-general 
of Virginia: I mention their names in the order in 
which they spoke on their respective sides. 

The cause was opened with great fairness and abil- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 319 

ity, by Mr. Roland and Mr. Baker, in succession; 
they were answered by all the counsel of the defen- 
dant ; and Mr. Wickham, Mr. Starke, and Mr. Baker, 
were heard in the reply. 

The opening counsel made the following points : — 

First, That debts were not a subject of confiscation 
in war. 

Secondly, That if they were, Virginia, at the time 
of passing the acts relied on by the defendant, was 
not a sovereign and independent state, Great Britain 
not having at that time assented to her independence ; 
and hence, that she had not the power of legislating 
away the debts of fellow-subjects not represented in 
her legislative councils — which councils, were them- 
selves a usurpation in the eye of the law. 

Thirdly, That if debts were subject to confiscation, 
and Virginia w^ere competent to pass laws to that ef- 
fect, she had not done so ; and Mr. Baker particularly 
entered into a minute and ingenious scrutiny of the 
language of the several acts of assembly, to prove 
that, so far from having been forfeited, the debts 
were recognized as existing British debts down to the 
year 1782. 

Fourthly, That if all these points were against the 
plaintiff, the right of recovering those debts was re- 
stored by the treaty of 1783, and the constitution of 
the United States, which recognized that treaty as 
the supreme law of the land ; and, 



320 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

Fifthly, That the ailiged infractions of the treaty 
on the part of Great Britain did not produce the 
effect of abolishing the treaty; that this was a na- 
tional concern, with which the individual plaintiff 
and defendant had nothing to do ; that the question of 
infraction was one to be decided by the supreme 
power of the nation only, and one of which the court 
could not, with any propriety take cognizance. 

Mr. Baker closed his opening speech on Thursday 
evening, the 24th of ISTovember, and it was publicly 
understood that Mr. Henry was to commence his re- 
ply on the next day. The legislature was then in 
session ; but when 11 o'clock, the hour for the meet- 
ing of the court, arrived, the speaker found himself 
without a house to do business. All his authority and 
that of his sergeant-at-arms were unavailing to keep 
the members in their seats; every consideration of 
public duty yielded to the anxiety which they felt, in 
common with the rest of their fellow-citizens, to hear 
this great man on this truly great and extensively-in- 
teresting question. Accordingly, when the court was 
ready to proceed to business, the court-room of the 
capitol, large as it is, was insufficient to contain the 
vast concourse that was pressing to enter it. The 
portico, and the area in which the statue of Washing- 
ton stands, were filled with a disaj^pointed crowd, 
wdio, nevertheless, maintained their stand without. 
In the court-room itself, the judges, through conde- 
scension to the public anxiety, relaxed the rigor of 
respect which they were in the habit of exacting, and 
permitted the vacant seats of the bench, and even the 
windows behind it, to be occupied by the impatient 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 321 

multitude. The noise and tumult, occasioned by 
seeking a more favorable station, were at length 
hushed, and the profound silence which reigned 
within the room gave notice to those without, that the 
orator had risen, or was on the point of rising. Every 
eye in front of the bar was riveted upon him with the 
most eager attention ; and so still and deep was the 
silence, that every one might hear the throbbing of 
his own heart. Mr. Henry, however, appeared 
wholly unconscious that all this preparation was on 
his account, and rose with as much simplicity and 
composure, as if the occasion had been one of ordi- 
nary occurrence, l^othing can be more plain, modest, 
and unaffected, than his exordium : — " I stand here, 
may it please your honors, to support, according to 
my power, that side of the question which respects 
the American debtor. I beg leave to beseech the pa- 
tience of this honorable court; because the subject is 
very great and important, and because I have not 
only the greatness of the subject to consider, but those 
numerous observations which have come from the op- 
posing counsel to answer. Thus, therefore, the mat- 
ter proper for my discussion is unavoidably accumu- 
lated. Sir, there is a circumstance in this case, that 
is more to be deplored than that which I have just 
mentioned, and that is this : those animosities which 
the injustice of the British nation hath produced, 
and which I had well hoped would never again be the 
subject of discussion, are necessarily brought forth. 
The conduct of that nation, which bore so hard upon 
us in the late contest, becomes once more the subject 
of investigation. I know, sir, how well it becomes a 
liberal man and a Christian to forget and to forgive. 



322 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

As individuals professing a holy religion it is our 
bounden duty to forgive injuries done us as individ- 
uals. But when to the character of Christian you add 
the character of patriot, you are in a different situa- 
tion. Our mild and holy system of religion incul- 
cates an admirable maxim of forbearance. If your 
enemy smite one cheek, turn the other to him. But 
you must stop there. You cannot apply this to your 
country. As members of a social community, this 
maxim does not apply to you. When you consider in- 
juries done to your country, your political duty tells 
you of vengeance. Forgive as a private man, but 
never forgive public injuries. Observations of this 
nature are exceedingly unpleasant, but it is my duty 
to use them." 

With the same primeval simplicity, he enters upon 
the argument ; not making a formal division of the 
whole subject, but merely announcing the single prop- 
osition which he was about to maintain for the time ; 
thus, immediatelv after the exordium which has been 
quoted he proceeds thus : — 

" The first point which I shall endeavor to estab- 
lish will be, that debts in common wars become sub- 
ject to forfeiture; and if forfeited in common wars, 
much more must they be so in a revolution war, as the 
late contest was. In considering this subject, it will 
be necessary to define what a debt is. I mean by it 
an engagement, or promise by one man to pay an- 
other, for a valuable consideration, an adequate price. 
By a contract thus made, for a valuable considera- 
tion there arises what, in the law phrase, is called a 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 323 

lien on the body and goods of the promissor or debtor. 
This interest, which the creditor becomes entitled to, 
in the goods and body of his debtor, is such as may be 
taken for the creditor, if he be found the subject of 
a hostile country. This position is supported by the 
following authorities." He then cites and reads co- 
pious extracts from Grotius and Vattel, which seem 
to support his position decisively, and then proceeds 
thus : — '^ This authority decides in the most clear 
and satisfactory manner, that, as a nation, we had 
powers as extensive and unlimited as any nation on 
earth. This great writer, after stating the equality 
and independence of nations, and who are, and who 
are not enemies, does away the distinction between 
corporeal and incorporeal rights, and declares that 
war gives the same right over the debts, as over the 
other goods of an enemy. He illustrates his doctrine 
by the instance of Alexander's remitting to the Thes- 
salians, a debt due by them to the Theban common- 
wealth : this is a case in point — for supposing the 
subjects of Alexander had been indebted to the The- 
bans, might he not have remitted the debts due by 
them to that people, as well as the debts due them by 
his allies, the Thessalians ? Let me not be told that 
he was entitled to the goods of the Thebans, because 
he had conquered them. If he could remit a debt due 
by those whose claim of friendship was so inferior, 
those who were only attached to him by the feeble ties 
of contingent and temporary alliance — if his Mace- 
donians, his immediate and natural subjects, were in- 
debted to the Thebans, could he not have remitted 
their debts ? This author states in clear, unequivocal 
terms, by fair inference and unavoidable deduction^ 



324 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

that when two nations are at war, either nation has 
a right, according to the laws of nature and nations, 
to remit to its own citizens debts which they may 
owe to the enemy. If this point wanted further elu- 
cidation, it is pointedly proved by the authority 
which I first quoted from Grotius, that it is an in- 
separable concomitant of sovereign power, that debts 
and contracts similar to those which existed in Amer- 
ica, at the time the war with Great Britain broke out, 
may, in virtue of the eminent domain, or right, be 
cancelled and destroyed. ^ A Icing has a greater right 
in the goods of his subjects, for the public advantage, 
than the proprietors themselves. And when the exi- 
gency of the state requires a supply, every man is 
more obliged to contribute toivard it, than to satisfy 
his creditors. The sovereign may discharge a debt- 
or from the obligation of paying, either for a cer- 
tairi time, or for ever.' What language can be more 
expressive than this ? Can the mind of man conceive 
any thing more comprehensive ? Rights are of two 
sorts, private and inferior, or eminent and superior, 
such as the community hold over the persons and 
estates of its members for the common benefit. The 
latter is paramount to the former. A king or chief 
of a nation has a greater right than the owner him- 
self over any property in the nation. The individual 
who owns private property cannot dispose of it, con- 
trary to the will of his sovereign, to injure the public. 
This author is known to be no advocate for tyranny, 
yet he mentions that a king has a superior power over 
the property in his nation, and that by virtue thereof 
he may discharge his subjects for ever from debts 
which they owe to aai enemy. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 325 

" The instance whicli our author derives from the 
Roman history, affords a striking instance of the 
length to which the necessities and exigencies of a 
nation will warrant it to go. It was a juncture crit- 
ical to the Roman affairs. But their situation was 
not more critical or dangerous than ours at the time 
these debts were confiscated. It was after the total 
defeat and dreadful slaughter at Cannae, when the 
state was in the most imminent danger. Our situa- 
tion in the late war was equally perilous. Every 
consideration must give way to the public safety. 
That admirable Roman maxim, salus populi suprema 
lex,^ governed that people in every emergency. It 
is a maxim that ought to govern every community. 
It was not peculiar to the Roman people. The im- 
pression came from the same source from which we 
derive our existence. Self-preservation, that great 
dictate implanted in us by nature, must regulate our 
conduct ; w^e must have a power to act according to 
our necessities, and it remains for human judgment 
to decide what are the proper occasions for the exer- 
cise of this power. Call to your recollection onr 
situation during the late arduous contest. Was it 
not necessary in our day of trial, to go to the last 
iota of human right ? The Romans fought for their 
altars and household gods. By these terms they 
meant every thing dear and valuable to men. Was 
not our stake as important as theirs % But many 
other nations engage in the most bloody wars for the 
most trivial and frivolous causes. If other nations 
who carried on wars for a mere point of honor, or a 

* " The welfare of the people is the supreme law," 



326 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY, 

punctilio of gallantrj,4^ere warranted in the exer- 
cise of this power, were not we, who fought for every 
thing most inestimable and valuable to mankind, jus- 
tified in using it? Our finances were in a more dis- 
tressing situation than theirs at this awful period of 
our existence. Our war was in opposition to the 
most grievous oppression — we resisted, and our resis- 
tance was approved and blessed by Heaven. The 
most illustrious men who have considered human af- 
fairs, when they have revolved human rights, and 
considered how far a nation is warranted to act in 
cases of emergency, declare that the only ingredient 
essential to the rectitude and validity of its measures 
is, that they be for the public good. I need hardly 
observe that the confiscation of these debts was for 
the public good. Those who decided it were constitu- 
tionally enabled to determine it. Grotius shows that 
you have not only power over the goods of your ene- 
mies, but according to the exigency of affairs, you 
may seize the property of your citizens." After read- 
ing the apposite passage from Grotius, he says: — 
" I read these authorities to prove, that the property 
of an enemy is liable to forfeiture, and that debts are 
as much the subject of hostile contest as tangible 
property. And Vattel, p. 484, as before mentioned, 
pointedly enumerates rights and debts among such 
property of the enemy as is liable to confiscation. To 
this last author I must frequently resort in the course 
of my argument. I put great confidence in him, from 
the weight of his authority — for he is universally re- 
spected by all the wise and enlightened of mankind, 
being no less celebrated for his great judgment and 
knowledge, than for his universal philanthropy. One 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 327 

of his first principles of the law of nations is, a per- 
fect equality of rights among nations ; that each na- 
tion ought to be left in the peaceable enjoyment of 
that liberty it has derived from nature. I refer your 
honors to his preliminary discourse from 6th to the 
12th page; and as it will greatly elucidate the sub- 
ject, and tend to prove the position I have attempted 
to support, I will read sections 17, 18, 19, and 20, of 
this discourse.'^ Having read these sections, he 
touches transiently, but powerfully, the objection to 
the want of national independence to pass the laws of 
forfeiture, till that independence was assented to by 
the king of Great Britain. "When the war com- 
menced," said he, " these things, called British debts, 
lost their quality of external obligation, and became 
matters of internal obligation, because the creditors 
had no right of constraint over the debtors. They 
were before the war, matters of perfect external ob- 
ligation, accompanied by a right of constraint; but 
the war having taken away this right of constraint 
over the debtors, they ivere changed into an internal 
obligation, binding the conscience only. For it will 
not surely be denied, that the creditor lost the right 
of constraint over his debtor. 

" From the authority of this respectable author, 
therefore — from the clearest principles of the laws 
of nature and nations, these debts became subject to 
forfeiture or remission. Those authors state, in lan- 
guage as emphatic and nervous as the human mind 
can conceive, or the human tongue can utter, that 
independent nations have the power of confiscating 
the property of their enemies ; and so had this gal- 
lant nation. America, being a sovereign and com- 



328 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

plete nation, in all its forms and departments, pos- 
sessed all the rights of the most powerful and ancient 
nations. Respecting the power of legislation, it was 
a nation complete, and without human control. Re- 
specting public justice, it was a nation blessed by 
Heaven, with the experience of past times ; not like 
those nations, whose crude systems of jurisprudence 
originated in the ages of barbarity and ignorance of 
human rights. America was a sovereign nation, 
when her sons stepped forth to resist the unjust hand 
of oppression, and declared themselves independent. 
The consent of Great Britain was not necessary (as 
the gentlemen on the other side urge) to create us a 
nation. Yes, sir, we were a nation, long before the 
monarch of that little island in the Atlantic ocean 
gae his 'puny assent to it.'' — These words he accom- 
panied by a most significant gesture — rising on tip- 
toe — pointing as to a vast distance, and half-closing 
his eyelids, as if endeavoring with extreme difficulty, 
to draw a sight on some object almost too small for 
vision — and blowing out the words puny assent, with 
lips curled with unutterable contempt. — " America 
was, long before that time, a great and gallant na- 
tion. In the estimation of other nations we were so : 
the beneficent hand of Heaven enabled her to tri- 
umph, and secured to her the most sacred rights 
mortals can enjoy. When these illustrious authors, 
these friends to human nature, these kind instructors 
of human errors and frailties,* contemplate the ob- 
ligations and corresponding rights of nations, and 

* In the second argument, he eulogized the writers on 
the laws of nations, as " benevolent spirits, who held up the 
torch of science to a benighted world." 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. $29 

define the internal right, which is without constraint 
and not binding, do they not understand such rights 
as these, which the British creditors now claim? 
Here this man tells us what conscience says ought to 
be done, and what is compulsory. These British 
debts must come within the grasp of human power, 
like all other human things. They ceased to have 
that external quality, and fell into that mass of power 
which belong to our legislature by the law of na- 
tions." 

He comes now to a very serious obstacle, which it 
required both address and vigor to remove. Vattel, 
whom he had cited to support his position of the for- 
feitable character of debts, and who, so far as Mr. 
Henry had read him, does support him explicitly, an- 
nexes a qualification to the principle which had been 
pressed with great power by the gentlemen who 
opened the cause. The curiosity of the reader will be 
gratified by seeing the manner in which he sur- 
mounted the objection. " But we are told, that ad- 
mitting this to be true in the fullest latitude, yet the 
customary law of Europe is against the exercise of 
this power of confiscation of debts; in support of 
which position, they rely on what is added by Vattel, 
p. 484. Let us examine what he says : — ^ The sov- 
ereign has naturally the same right over what his 
subjects may be indebted to enemies : therefore, he 
may confiscate debts of this nature, if the term of 
payment happen in the time of war, or at least he 
may prohibit his subjects from paying while the war 
lasts. But at present, in regard to the advantage and 
safety of commerce, all the sovereigns of Europe have 



330 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

departed from this ri^r. And as this custom has 
generally been received, he who should act contrary 
to it, would injure the public faith; for strangers 
trusted his subjects only, from a firm persuasion, that 
the general custom Avould be observed.' Excellent 
man 1 and excellent sentiments ! The principle can- 
not be denied to be good : but when you apply it to 
the case before the court, does it warrant their con- 
clusions ? The author says, that although a nation 
has a right to confiscate debts due by its people to 
an enemy, yet, at present the custom of Europe is 
contrary. It is not enough for this author to tell us 
that this custom is contrary to the right. He admits 
the right. Let us see w^hether this custom has ex- 
istence here. Vattel, having spoken of the necessary 
law of nations, which is immutable, and the obliga- 
tions whereof are indispensable, proceeds to distin- 
guish the several other kinds of natural law in the 
same preliminary discourse, pp. 11 and 12, thus: — 

"^Certain maxims and customs consecrated by long 
use, and observed by nations, between each other, as 
a kind of law, form this customary law of nations, or 
the custom of nations. This law is founded on a 
tacit consent, or, if you will, on a tacit convention of 
the nations that observe it with respect to each other. 
Whence, it appears, that it is only binding to those 
nations that have adopted it, and that is not univer- 
sal, any more than conventional laws. It must be 
here also observed of this customary law, that the 
particulars relating to it do not belong to a systematic 
treatise on the law of nations, but that we ought to 
confine ourselves to the giving a general theory of it, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 331 

that is, to the rules which here ought to be observed, 
as well with respect to its effects, as in relation to 
the matter itself : and in this last respect, these rules 
will serve to distinguish the lawful and innocent cus- 
toms, from those that are unjust and illegal! 

'^ ^ When a custom is generally established, either 
between all the polite nations in the world, or only be- 
tAveen those of a certain continent, as of Europe for 
example ; or those who have a more frequent corre- 
spondence; if that custom is in its own nature indif- 
ferent, and much more, if it be a wise and useful one, 
it ought to be obligatory on all those nations who are 
considered as having given their consent to it. And 
they are bound to observe it, with respect to each 
other, while they have not expressly declared that 
they will not adhere to it. But if that custom con- 
tains any thing unjust or illegal, it is of no force; 
and every nation is under an obligation to abandon 
it, nothing being able to oblige or permit a nation to 
violate a natural law. 

" ^ These three kinds of the law of nations, volun- 
tary, conventional, and customary, together, compose 
the positive law of nations. For they all proceed 
from the volition of nations ; the voluntary law, from 
their presumed consent : the conventional law, from 
an express consent ; and the customary law, from a 
tacit consent : and as there can be no other manner of 
deducing any law from the will of nations, there are 
only these three kinds of the positive law of nations.' 

" This excellent author, after having stated the 
voluntary law of nations to be the result of the equal- 
ity of nations, and the conventional law to be partic- 
ular compacts or treaties, binding only on the con- 



332 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tracting parties, declarea(^hat the customary law of 
nations is only binding to those nations that have 
adopted it ; that it is a particular and not a universal 
law ; that it applies only to distinct nations. The 
case of Alexander and the Thebans is founded on the 
general law of nations, applicable to nations at war. 
It is enough for me then, to show that America, being 
at war, w^as entitled to the privilege of national law. 
But, says Vattel, the present state of European re- 
finement controls the general law (of which he had 
been before speaking). We know that the customary 
law of nations can only bind those who are parties 
to the custom. In the year 1776, when America an- 
nounced her will to be free, or in the year 1777, when 
the law concerning British debts passed, was there a 
customary law of America to this effect ? Or were 
the customary laws of Europe binding on America ? 
Were we a party to any such customary law ? Was 
there any thing in our constitution or laws which tied 
up our hands ? No, sir. To make this customary 
law obligatory, the assent of all the parties to be 
bound by it is necessary. There must be an inter- 
change of it. It is not for one nation or community 
to say to another, you are bound by this law, because 
our kingdom approves of it. It must not only be re- 
ciprocal in its advantages and principles, but it must 
have been reciprocal in its exercise. Virginia could 
not, therefore, be bound by it. Let us see w^hether 
it could be a hard case on the British creditors, that 
this customary law of nations did not apply in their 
favor. Were these debts contracted from a persua- 
sion of its observance ? Did the creditors trust to 
this customary law of nations ? ISTo, sir. They 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 333 

trusted to what they thought as firm, the statute and 
trusieu lu -p, ^_j Victorious and successful 

common law 01 J^ngiana. vii^tuii u ^ 

as their nation had lately been, when they in their 

Side and inconsiderate self-confidence, stretched out 

L hand of oppression, their subjects placed no re- 

liance on the customs of particular nations ihey 

purconMence in those barriers of right, which were 

derived from their own nation. Their reliance was 

th the tribunals established in this country, under 

t same royal authority as -.E^Sl--^' ^^^S 
them justice. If we were not willing, they possessed 
he power of compelling us to do them justice. The 
debts having, therefore, not been contracted from any 
reliance on' he customary law of nations were they 
contracted from a regard 'to the rights of com- 
Zrce « ' From a view of promoting the commerce of 
Those little things called colonies 1 This -gard could 
lot have been the ground they -«« «°f ^^f^,^ ^^^ 
for their conduct evinced that they wished to take the 
ri'ht of commerce from us. What other ingredient 
rem ins to show the operation of this custom in the« 
favor" The book speaks of strangers trusting sub- 
•ects of a different nation, from a reliance on the ob- 
jects 01 a a J The fact here was, 

:ra;^Tlotsli:rtTu7ed u. on the footing just 
Ltd; trusting^o the e-sting compu W P-ess of 
Inw not relying on a passive inert custom. A tear 
m' plodding, sagacious trader, would not rely on so 
fl nisv so uf ert^in a dependance. Something simi- 
t to' what he thought positive satisfaction, he r. 
lied on. Were we not subject to the same king ? ihe 
cases are then at variance. He states the cus om to 
exist for the advantage of commerce, and that a ae- 



334 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

parture from it would i^ire the public faith. Pub- 
lic faith is iu this case out of the question. The 
public faith was not pledged — it could not therefore 
be injured. I have already read to your honors from 
the 11th page of the preliminary discourse of Yattel, 
^ that the customary law of nations is only binding 
on those who have adopted it, and that it is not uni- 
versal, any more than conventional laws.' It is evi- 
dent we could not be bound by any convention or 
treaty to which we ourselves were not a party : and 
from this authority it is equally obvious, that we 
could not be bound by any customary law to which 
we were not parties. 

" I think, therefore, with great submission to the 
court, that the right for which I contended, that is, 
that in common wars between independent nations, 
either of the contending parties has a right to con- 
fiscate or remit debts due by its people to the enemy, 
is not shaken by the customary laAV of nations, as far 
as it regards us, because the custom could not affect 
us. But the gentlemen say we were not completely 
independent till the year 1783 ! To take them on 
their own ground, their arguments will fail them. 
There is a customary law which will operate pretty 
strongly on our side of the question. What were the 
inducements of the debtor ? On what did the Ameri- 
can debtor rely ? Sir, he relied for protection on 
that system of common and statute law on which the 
creditors depended. Was he deceived in that reli- 
ance? That he was most miserably deceived, I be- 
lieve will not admit of a doubt. The customary law 
of nations will only apply to distinct nations, mu- 
tually consenting thereto. When tyranny attempted 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 335 

to rivet her chains upon us, and we boldly broke them 
asunder, we were remitted to that amplitude of free- 
dom which the beneficent hand of Nature gave us. 
We were not bound by fetters which are of benefit 
to one party, while they are destructive to the other. 
Would it be proper that we should be bound, and they 
unrestrained ? '' As a still further answer to the ob- 
jection, and as giving the only rule of restraint in 
operating on the property of a belligerent, he cites 
the following principle from Vattel, and applies it 
to the actual state of America : " Vattel, book the 
3d, ch. 8, sect. 137, says, that ' the lawful end gives 
a true right only to those means which are necessary 
for obtaining such end. Whatever exceeds this, if^ 
censured by the laws of nature as faulty, and Avill be 
condemned at the tribunal of conscience. Hence it 
is, that the right to such or such acts of hostility 
varies according to their circumstances. What is 
just and perfectly innocent in a war, in one particu- 
lar situation, is not always so in another. Right goes 
hand in hand with necessity, and the exigency of the 
case ; but never exceeds it.' This, sir, is the first dic- 
tate of nature, and the practice of nations; and if 
your misfortunes and distresses should be sad and 
dreadful, you are let loose from those common re- 
straints which may be proper on common occasions, 
in order to preserve the great rights of human na- 
ture. 

^' This is laid down by that great writer in clear 
and unequivocal terms. If then, sir, it be certain, 
from a recurrence to facts, that it was necessary for 
America to seize on British property, this book war- 
rants the legislature of this state in passing those con- 



336 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

fiscating and prohibitoiy laws. I need only refer to 
your recollection, for onr pressing situation during 
the late contest ; and liappy am I, that this all-im- 
portant question comes on, before the heads of those 
who were actors in the great scene are laid in the 
dust. An uninformed posterity would be unac- 
quainted with the awful necessity which impelled us 
on. If the means were within reach, we were war- 
ranted by the laws of nature and nations to use them. 
The fact was, that we were attacked by one of the 
most formidable nations under heaven ; a nation that 
carried terror and dread with its thunder to both 
hemispheres." — [This illustration of the power of 
Great Britain was, if we may trust respectable tra- 
dition, much more expanded than we find it in the re- 
port ; and such was the force of his imagination, and 
the irresistible energy of his delivery and action, that 
the audience now felt themselves instinctively recoil- 
ing from the tremendous power of that very nation, 
which but a short time before had been exhibited as 
a mere dot in the Atlantic, a point so microscopic as 
to be scarcely visible to the naked eye : he proceeds to 
close the first member of his first point thus:] — 
" Our united property enabled us to look in the face 
that mighty people. Dared we to have gone in op- 
position to them bound hand and foot ? Would we 
have dared to resist them fettered ? for we should 
have been fettered, if we had been deprived of so con- 
siderable a part of our little stock of national re- 
sources. In that most critical and dangerous emer- 
gency, our all was but a little thing. Had we a treas- 
ury — an exchequer ? Had we commerce ? Had we 
any revenue ? Had we any thing from which a iia- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. SSf 

tion could draw wealth? 'No, sir. Our credit be- 
came the scorn of our foes. However, the efforts of 
certain patriotic characters (there were not a few of 
them, thank Heaven) gave us credit among our own 
people. But we had not a farthing to spare. We 
were obliged to go on a most grievous anticipation, 
the weight of which we feel at this day. Kecur to 
our actual situation, and the means we had of de- 
fending ourselves. The actual situation of America 
is described here, where this author says, ' that right 
goes hand in hand with necessity/ The necessity be- 
ing great and dreadful, you are warranted to lay 
hold of every atom of money within your reach, es- 
pecially if it be the money of your enemies. It is 
prudent and necessary to strengthen yourselves and 
weaken your enemies. Vattel, book 3d, ch. 8, sect. 
138, says, ' The business of a just war being to sup- 
press violence and injustice, it gives a right to com- 
pel, by force, him who is deaf to the voice of justice. 
It gives a right of doing against the enemy, whatever 
is necessary for weakening him — for disabling him 
from making any farther resistance in support of his 
injustice — and the most effectual, the most proper 
methods may be chosen, provided they have nothing 
odious, be not unlawful in themselves, or exploded by 
the law of nature/ Here let me pause for a moment, 
and ask, whether it be odious in itself, or exploded by 
the law of nature, to seize those debts ? 

" No ! because the money was taken from the very 
offenders. We fought for the great, unalienable, he- 
reditary rights of human nature. An unwarrantable 
attack was made upon us. An attack, not only not 
congenial with motherly or parental tenderness, but 



338 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

incompatible with the j^nciples of humanity or civ- 
ilization. Our defence then was a necessary one. 
What says Vattel, book 3d, ch. 8, sect. 136 ?— ' The 
end of a just war is to revenge or prevent injury; 
that is, to procure by force the justice which cannot 
otherwise be obtained ; to compel an unjust person to 
repair an injury already done, or to give securities 
against any wrong threatened by him. On a dec- 
laration of war, therefore, this nation has a right of 
doing against the enemy whatever is necessary to this 
justifiable end of bringing him to reason, and ob- 
taining justice and security from him.' We have 
taken nothing in this necessary defence, but from the 
very offenders — those who unjustly attacked us : for 
we had a right of considering every individual of the 
British nation as an enemy. This I prove by the 
same great writer, p. 519, sect. 139, of the same 
book : — ^ An enemy attacking me unjustly gives an 
undoubted right of repelling his violences ; and he 
who opposes me in arms, when I demand only my 
right, becomes himself the real aggressor, by his un- 
just resistance. He is the first author of the violence, 
and obliges me to make use of force, for securing my- 
self against the wrongs intended me either in my 
person or possessions ; for if the effects of this force 
proceed so far as to take away his life, he owes the 
misfortune to himself; for, if by sparing him, 1 
should submit to the injury, the good would soon be- 
come the prey of the wicked. Hence the right of 
killing enemies in a just war is derived ; when their 
resistance cannot be suppressed — when they are not 
to be reduced by milder methods, there is a right of 
taking aAvay their life. Under the name of enemies, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 339 

as we have already shown, are comprehended not only 
the first author of the war, but likewise all who join 
him, and fight for his cause.' Thus I think the first 
part of my position confirmed and unshaken ; that in 
common wars, a nation not restrained by the custo- 
mary law of nations, has a right to confiscate debts." 

In the second member of that point, he is released 
from the servility of quotation ; and, to borrow a 
phrase of his own, " remitted to the amplitude '' of 
his natural genius, the reader will therefore be 
amused by a more copious extract : — " From this I 
will go on to the other branch of my position : that if, 
in common wars, debts be liable to forfeiture, a 
fortiori, must they be so in a revolution War. Let 
me contrast the late war with wars in common. Ac- 
cording to those people called kings, wars in common 
are systematic and produced for trifles ; for not con- 
forming to imaginary honors ; because you have not 
lowered your flag before him at sea ; or for a supposed 
affront to the person of an ambassador. ^Nations are 
set by the ears, and the most horrid devastations are 
brought on mankind, for the most frivolous causes. 
If then, when small matters are a contest, debts be 
forfeitable, what must have accrued to us, as engaged 
in the late revolution war — a war commenced in at- 
tainder, perfidy, and confiscation ? If we take with 
us this great principle of Vattel, that right goes in 
hand with necessity, and consider the peculiar situa- 
tion of the American people, we will find reason more 
than sufficient to give us a right of confiscating those 
debts. 

"The most striking peculiarity attended the Amer- 



340 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

ican war. In the first of f^we were stripped of every 
municipal right. Rights and obligations are corre- 
spondent, co-extensive, and inseparable — they must 
exist together, or not at all. We were, therefore, 
when stripped of all onr municipal rights, clear of 
every municipal obligation, burden, and onerous en- 
gagement. If then the obligation be gone, what is 
become of the correspondent right ? They are mu- 
tually gone.'' — These little words, " they are mu- 
tually gone,'' which would have made no figure in the 
pronunciation of an ordinary speaker, are said to 
have formed a beautiful picture, as delivered by Mr. 
Henry: his eyes seemed to have pursued these asso- 
ciated objects to the extremest verge of mortal sight, 
while the fall of his voice, and correspondent fall of 
his extended hand, with the palm downward, de- 
picted the idea of evanescence with indescribable 
force ; the audience might imagine, that they saw the 
objects at the very instant when they vanished in the 
distance, and became commingled with the air: and 
all this, too, without any affected pause to give it 
effect ; without any apparent effort on his part ; but 
with all the quickness of thought and all the ease of 
nature. — " The case of sovereign and independent 
nations at war is far different ; because, there private 
right is respected and domestic asylum held sacred. 
Was it the case in our war. 'No, sir. Daggers were 
planted in your chambers, and mischief, death, and 
destruction, might meet you at your fireside. 

^* There is an essential variance between the late 
war and common wars. In common wars, children 
are not obliged to fight against their fathers, nor 
brothers against brothers, nor kindred against kin- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 34:1 

dred. Our men were compelled, contrary to the most 
sacred ties of humanity, to shed the blood of their 
dearest connections. In common wars, contending 
parties respect municipal rights, and leave even to 
those they invade, the means of paying debts, ^ and 
complying with obligations; they touch not private 
property. For example, when a British army lands 
in France, they plunder nothing: they pay for what 
they have, and respect the tribunals of justice, unless 
they have a mind to be called a savage nation. Were 
we thus treated ? Were we permitted to exercise in- 
dustry and to collect debts, by which we might be 
enabled to pay British creditors ? Had we a power 
to pursue commerce ? Ko, sir. What became of our 
ao-riculture ? Our inhabitants were mercilessly and 
brutallly plundered, and our enemies professed to 
maintain their army by those means only. Our 
slaves carried away, our crops burnt, a^ cruel war 
carried on against our agriculture — disability to pay 
debts produced by pillage and devastation, contrary 
to every principle of national law. From that series 
of plenty in which we had been accustomed to live 
and to revel, we were plunged into every species of 
human calamity. Our lives attacked, charge of reb- 
els fixed upon us, confiscation and attainder de- 
nounced against the whole continent ; and he that was 
called king of England sat judge upon our case ; he 
pronounced his judgment, not like those to whom 
poetic fancy has given existence — not like him who 
sits in the infernal regions, and dooms to the Stygian 
lake those spirits who deserve it, because he spares 
the innocent, and sends some to the fields of Elysium 
— not like Mm who sat in ancient imperial Home, 



3-1:2 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

and wished the people nad but one neck, that he 
might at one blow strike off their heads, and spare 
himself the trouble of carnage and massacre, because 
one city would have satisfied his vengeance — not like 
any of his fellow-men, for nothing would satiate his 
sanguinary ferocity, but the indiscriminate destruc- 
tion of a whole continent, involving the innocent with 
the guilty. Yes, he sat in judgment with his coadju- 
tors, and pronounced proscription, attainder, and for- 
feiture, against men, women, and even children at 
the breast. Is not this description pointedly true in 
all its parts ? And wJio were his coadjutors and exe- 
cutioners in this strange court of judicature ? Like 
the fiends of poetic imagination — Hessians, Indians, 
and Negroes, were his coadjutors and executioners. 
Is there any thing in this sad detail of offences which 
is unfounded 1 any thing not enforced by the act of 
parliament against America ? We were thereby 
driven out of their protection, and branded by the 
epithet rebels. The term rehel may not now appear 
in all its train of horrid consequences. We know that 
when a person is called rehel by that government, his 
goods and life are forfeited, and his very blood pro- 
nounced to be corrupted, and the severity of the pun- 
ishment entailed on his posterity. To whom may we 
apply for the verity of this ? The jurisprudence and 
history of that nation prove, that, when they speak 
of rebels, nothing but blood will satisfy them. Is 
there nothing hideous in this part of the portrait ? 
It is unparalleled in the annals of mankind. Though 
I have respect for individuals of that nation, my 
duty constrains me to speak thus, 

" When we contemplate this mode of warfare, and 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 343 

the sentiments of the writers on natural law on this 
subject, we are justified in saying, that in this revolu- 
tion war, we had a right to consider British debts as 
^^ubject to confiscation, and to seize the property of 
those who originated that war. As to the injuries 
done to agriculture, they appear in a diminutive 
view, when compared to the injuries and indignities 
offered to persons, and mansions of abode. Sir, from 
your seat you might have seen instances of the most 
grievous hostility: not only private property wan- 
tonly pillaged, but men, women, and children, 
dragged publicly from their habitations, and indis- 
criminately devoted to destruction. The rights of 
humanity Vere sacrificed. We were then deprived 
not only of the benefits of municipal, but natural 
law. If there shall grow out of these considerations 
a palpable disability to pay those debts, I ask if the 
claim be just ? For that disability was produced by 
those excesses, by those very men who come on us now 
for payment. Here give me leave to say, that they 
sold us a bad title in whatever they sold us, in real 
as well as in personal property. Describe the nature 
of a debt : it is an engagement or promise to pay, but 
it must be for a valuable consideration. If this be 
clear, was not the title, to whatever property they 
sold us, bad in every sense of the word, when the war 
followed ? What can add value to property ? Force. 
Notwithstanding the equity and fairness of the debt 
when incurred, if the security of the property re- 
ceived was afterward destroyed, the title has proved 
defective. Suppose millions were contracted for and 
received, those millions give you no advantage, with- 
out force to protect them. This necessary protection 



344: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

is withdrawn by the vei|f men who were bound to 
afford it, and who now demand payment. ^N^either 
lands, slaves, nor other property are worth a shilling, 
without protecting force. This title was destroyed, 
when the act of parliament, putting us out of their 
protection, passed against iimerica. I say, sir, the 
title was destroyed by the very offenders who come 
here now and demand payment. Justice and equity 
cancel the obligation as to the price that was to be 
given for it, because the tenure is destroyed, and the 
effects purchased have no value. Such a claim is un- 
supported by the plainest notions of right and wrong. 
For this long catalogue of offences committed against 
the citizens of America, every individual of the Brit- 
ish nation is accountable. How are you to be com- 
pensated for those depredations on persons and prop- 
erty ? x\re you to go to the kingdom of England, to 
find tJie very individual who did you the outrage, and 
demand satisfaction of him ? To tell you of such a 
remedy as this, is adding insult to injury. Every in- 
dividual is chargeable with national offences." 

To maintain this last position, he cites an authority 
expressly in point, from Yattel, and proceeds thus : — 
" These observations of Vattel amount to this : that 
a king or conductor of a nation is considered as a 
moral person, by means of whom the nation acquires 
or loses its rights, and subjects itself to penalties. 
The individuals, and the nation which they compose, 
are one. I will therefore take it for granted, that 
whatever violences and excesses were committed on 
this continent are chargeable to the plaintiff in this 
very action. Eecollect our distressed situation. We 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 345 

had no exchequer, no finances, no army, no navy, no 
common means of defence. Our necessity, dire neces- 
sity compelled us to throw aside those rules which re- 
spect private property, and to make impresses on our 
own citizens to support the war. Right and necessity 
being co-extensive, we were compelled to exert a right 
the most eminent over the whole community. The 
salus populi demanded what we did. If we had a 
right to disregard the legal fences thrown round the 
property of our citizens, had we not a greater right 
to take British property ? 

^' Another peculiarity contributes to aid our de- 
fence. The want of an exchequer obliged us to emit 
paper money, and compel our citizens to receive it for 
gold. In the ears of some men this sounds harshly. 
But they are young men, who do not know and feel 
the irresistible necessity that urged us. Would your 
armies have been raised, clothed, maintained, or kept 
together without paper money ? Without it, the war 
would have stood still, resistance to tyranny would 
have stopped, and despotism, with all its horrid train 
of appurtenances, must have depressed your country. 
We compelled the people to receive it in payment of 
all debts, we induced and invited them (if we did not 
compel them) to put it into the treasury, as a com- 
plete discharge from their debts. Sir, I trust I shall 
not live to see the day, when the public councils of 
America will give ground to say that this was a 
state trick, contrived to delude and defraud the citi- 
zens. What must it be ostensibly, when, by the com- 
pact of your nation, they had publicly bound and 
pledged themselves, that it was and should be money, 
if afterward, in the course of human events, when 



346 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

temptations present themselves, tliey shall declare 
that it is not money ? Sir, the honest planter is un- 
skilled in political tricks and deceptions. His in- 
terest ought never to be sacrificed. The law is his 
guide. The law compelled him to receive it, and his 
countrymen would have branded him with the name 
of enemy if he had refused it. The laws of the 
country are as sacred as the imaginary sanctity of 
British debts. Sir, national engagements ought to 
be held sacred ; the public violation of this solemn 
engagement will destroy all confidence in the govern- 
ment. If you depart from the national compact one 
iota, you give a dangerous precedent, which may im- 
perceptibly and gradually introduce the most de- 
structive encroachment on human rights." 



'&' 



He then proceeds to notice more directly the objec- 
tion, that we were not a people competent for legis- 
lation till the assent of the British king was given to 
our independence : — ^^ I will beg leave here to dissent 
from the position of the gentleman on the other side, 
which denied that we were a people, till our enemies 
were pleased to say we were so. That we were a 
people, and had a right to do every thing which a 
great and a royal — nay, an imperial people could do, 
is clear and indisputable. Though under the humble 
appearance of republicanism, our government and 
national existence, when examined, are as solid as a 
rock — not resting on the mere fraud and oppression 
of rulers, nor the credulity, nor barbarous ignorance 
of the people ; but founded on the consent and con- 
viction of enlightened human nature. That Ave had 
every right that completely independent nations can 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 347 

liave, will be satisfactorily proved to your honors, by 
again referring to Vattel." He then cites and reads 
a passage from Vattel, the effect of which is, that 
during a civil war, the parties, acknowledging no 
common judge on earth are to be considered as two 
distinct peoples ; and to govern themselves in the con- 
duct of the war by the general laws of nations. After 
which he proceeds thus : — 

" Here then, sir, is proof abundant, that before the 
acknowledgment of American independence by Great 
Britain, we had a right to be considered as a nation ; 
because, on earth we had no common superior, to 
give a decision of the dispute between us and our 
sovereign. After declaring ourselves a sovereign 
people, we had every right a nation can claim as an 
independent community. But the gentlemen on the 
other side greatly rely upon this principle, that a 
contract cannot be dissolved without the consent of 
all the contracting parties: the inference is, that the 
consent of the king of Great Britain was necessary to 
the dissolution of the government. Tyranny has too 
often, and too successfully, riveted its chains, to war- 
rant a belief, that a tyrant will ever voluntarily re- 
lease his subjects from the governmental compact. 
Rather might it be expected, that the last iota of hu- 
man misery would be borne, and the oppression 
would descend from father to son, to the latest period 
of earthly existence. The despotism of our sovereign 
ought to be considered as an implied consent, on his 
part, to dissolve the compact between us ; and he and 
his subjects must be considered as one — there can be 
no distinction. For, in any other view, his consent 



348 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

could not have been oWained without force. There 
is such a thing, indeed, as tyranny from free choice. 
Sweden not long ago surrendered its liberties in one 
day, as Denmark had done formerly ; so that this 
branch of the human family is cut off from every 
possible enjoyment of human rights. But the right 
to resist oppression is not denied. The gentlemen's 
doctrine cannot therefore apply to national communi- 
ties. If any additional force was wanting to confirm 
wdiat I advance, it would be derived from the treaty 
of peace, .which further proves, that we were entitled 
to all the privileges of independent nations. The 
consent of all the people of Europe said we were 
free. Our former master withheld his consent till a 
few unlucky events compelled him. And when he 
gave his fiat, it gave us, by relation back to the time 
of the declaration of independence, all the rights and 
privileges of a completely sovereign nation : our inde- 
pendence was acknowledged by him, previous to the 
completion of the treaty of peace. It was not a con- 
dition of the treaty, but was acknowledged, by hi*:; 
own overture, preparatory to it. View the conse- 
quences of their fatal doctrine. There would not 
only have been long arrears of debts to pay, but a 
long catalogue of crimes to be punished. If the ulti- 
mate acknowledgment of our independence by Great 
Britain had no relation back to the time of the dec- 
laration of independence, all the intermediate acts 
of legislation would be void — and every decision and 
act, consequent thereon, would be null. But, sir, we 
were a complete nation on every principle, according 
to the authorities I have already read ; in addition to 
which I will refer your honors to Vattel, book iv. ch. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 349 

vii. sect. 88, to sliow we were entitled to the benefits 
of national law, and to use all the resources of the 
community : ^ From the equality of all nations really 
sovereign and independent, it is a principle of the 
voluntary law of nations, that no nation can control 
another in its internal municipal legislation.' If we 
consider the business of confiscation according to the 
immemorial usages of Great Britain, we will find, 
that the law and practice of that country support my 
position. In the wars which respect revolutions 
which have taken place in that island — life, fortune, 
goods, debts, and every thing else were confiscated. 
The crimen Iwsce majestatis, (the crime of treason) 
as it is called, involved every thing. Every possible 
punishment has been inflicted on suffering humanity 
that it could endure, by the party which had the su- 
periority in those wars, over the defeated party, 
which was charged with rebellion. 

" What would have been the consequences, sir, if 
we had been conquered ? Were we not fighting 
against that majesty ? W^ould the justice of our op- 
position have been considered ? The most horrid for- 
feitures, confiscations, and attainders, would have 
been pronounced against us. Consider their history, 
from the time of William the First till this day. 
Were not his xQ^ormans gratified with the confiscation 
of the richest estates in England ? Read the excessive 
cruelties, attainders, and confiscations, of that reign. 
England depopulated, its inhabitants stripped of the 
dearest privileges of humanity, degraded with the 
most ignominious badges of bondage, and totally de- 
prived of the power of resistance to usurpation and 
tyranny. This inability continued to the time of 



350 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

Henry the Eighth. In J|^ reign, the business of con- 
fiscation and attainder, made considerable havoc. 
After his reign, some stop was put to that effusion of 
blood which preceded and happened under it. Re- 
collect the sad and lamentable effects of the York and 
Lancastrian wars. Remember the rancorous hatred 
and inveterate detestations of contending factions — 
the distinction of the white and red roses. To come 
a little lower — what happened in that island in the 
rebellions of 1715 and 1745 ? If we had been con- 
quered,^ would not our men have shared the fate of the 
people of Ireland ? A great part of that island was 
confiscated, though the Irish people thought them- 
selves engaged in a laudable cause. What confisca- 
tion and punishments were inflicted in Scotland ? 
The plains of Culloden, and the neighboring gibbets, 
would show you. I thank Heaven that the spirit of 
liberty, under the protection of the Almighty, saved 
us from experiencing so hard a destiny. But had we 
been subdued, would not every right have been 
wrested from us ? What right would have been 
saved ? Would debts have been saved ? Would it not 
be absurd, to save debts, while they should burn, 
hang, and destroy ? Before we can decide with pre- 
cision, we are to consider the dangers we should have 
been exposed to had we been subdued. After pre- 
senting to your view this true picture of what would 
have been our situation, had we been subjugated, 
surely a correspondent right will be found, growing 
out of the law of nations, in our favor. Had our sub- 
jugation been effected, and we pleaded for pardon, 
represented that we defended the most valuable 
rights of human nature, and thought they were 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 351 

wrong, would our petition have availed ? I feel my- 
self impelled, from what has passed, to ask this ques- 
tion. I would not wish to have lived to see the sad 
scenes we should have experienced. Needy avarice, 
and savage cruelty, would have had full scope. Hun- 
gry Germans, blood-thirsty Indians, and nations of 
another color, would have been let loose upon us. 
The sad effects of such warfare have had their full 
influence on a number of our fellow-citizens. Sir, if 
you had seen the sad scenes which I have known ; if 
you had seen the simple but tranquil felicity of help- 
less and unoffending women and children, in little log- 
huts on the frontiers, disturbed and destroyed by the 
sad effects of British warfare and Indian butchery, 
your soul would have been struck with horror ! Even 
those helpless women and children were the objects of 
the most shocking barbaritv. 

" Give me leave again to recur to Yattel, p. 9 : — 
^ Nations being free, independent, and equal, and 
having a right to judge, according to the dictates of 
conscience, of what is to be done in order to fulfil its 
duties ; the effect of all this is, the producing, at least 
externally and among men, a perfect equality of 
rights between nations, in the administration of their 
affairs, and the pursuit of their pretensions, without 
regard to the intrinsic justice of their conduct, of 
which others have no right to form a definitive judg- 
ment : so that what is permitted in one, is also per- 
mitted in the other ; and they ought to be considered 
in human society as having an equal right' If it 
be allowed to the British nation to put to death, to 
forfeit and confiscate debts and every thing else, may 
we not (having an equal right) confiscate — not lif^ 



352 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

for we never desire it — Tat that which is the common 
object of confiscation — property, goods, and debts, 
which strengthen ourselves and weaken our enemies ? 
I trnct that this short recapitulation of events shows, 
that if there ever was in the history of man a case 
requiring the full use of all human means, it was 
our case in the late contest ; and we were therefore 
warranted to confiscate the British debts.'' 

He now takes another gi'ound to establish the con- 
fiscation. I shall give his whole argument on this 
point in his own words : — 

" I beg leave to add that these debts ere lost on an- 
other principle. By the dissolution of the British 
government, America went into a state of nature — 
on the dissolution of that of which we had been mem- 
bers, there being no government antecedent, we went 
necessarily into a state of nature. To prove this, I 
need only refer to the declaration of independence, 
pronounced on the fourth day of July, 1776, and 
our state constitution." — Here Mr. Henry read part 
of the constitution. — " It recites many instances of 
misrule by the king of England — it asserts the right 
and expediency of dissolving the British government, 
and going into a state of nature ; or, in other words, 
to establish a new government. The right of dis- 
solving it, and forming a new system, had preceded 
the fourth day of July, 1776. A recapitulation of 
the events of the tyrannical acts of government, 
w^ould demonstrate a right to dissolve it. But I may 
go further, and even say, that the act of parliament 
which declared us out of the king's protection, dis- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 353 

solved it. For what is government ? It is an express 
or implied compact between the rulers and ruled, stip- 
ulating reciprocal protection and obedience. That 
protection was withdrawn, solemnly withdrawn from 
us. Of consequence, obedience ceased to be due. 
Our municipal rights were taken away by one blow. 
Municipal obligations and government were also 
taken away by the same blow. Well, then, there 
being no antecedent government, we returned into a 
state of nature. Unless we did so, our new compact 
of government could only be a usurpation. In a 
state of nature there is no legal lien in the person or 
property of any one. If you are not clear of every 
antecedent engagement, what is the legality or 
strength of the present constitution of government? 
If any antecedent engagements are to bind, how far 
are they to reach ? You had no right to form a new 
government, if the old system existed ; and if it did 
not exist, you were necessarily and inevitably in a 
state of nature. In my humble opinion, by giving 
validity to such claims, you destroy the very idea of 
the right to form a new government. Vattel calls 
government the totality of persons, estates, and ef- 
fects, formed by every individual of the new society, 
and that totality represented by the governing power. 
How can the totality exist while an antecedent right 
exists elsewhere? See Grotius, p. 4, which I have 
already read, and note 29: because the design and 
good of civil society necessarily require, that the nat- 
ural and acquired rights of each member should 
admit of limitations several ways, and to a certain de- 
gree, by the authority of him or them, in whose hands 
the sovereign authority is lodged. When we formed 



S54r LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY„ 

a new government, did mere exist any authority that 
limited our rights? How can the totality exist, if 
any other person or persons have an existing claim 
upon you ? It appears to me, that that equality which 
is involved in a state of nature cannot exist while such 
claim exists. The court will recollect what I have al- 
ready read out of Yattel, in the sections 15 and 18. 
The equality here ascribed to independent nations is 
equally ascribed to men in a state of nature. A 
moral society of persons cannot exist without this ab- 
solute equality. The existence of individuals in a 
state of nature, depends in like manner upon, and is 
inseparable from such equality. 

^'" Rights, as before-mentioned, Vattel, pp. 8 and 9, 
are divided into interiml and external: of external 
rights, he makes the distinction of perfect and im- 
i:)erfect. I beseech your honors to fix this distinction 
in your minds. The perfect external right only is 
accomjoanied with the right of constraint. The im- 
perfect right loses that quality, and leaves it to the 
party to comply or not to comply with it. When the 
former government was dissolved, the American peo- 
ple became indebted to nobody. You either owe 
every thing or nothing — and every contract and en- 
gagement must be done away, if any. In a state of 
nature you are free and equal. But how are you free, 
if another have a lien on your body ? Where is your 
freedom, or your equality with that person who has 
the right of constraining you ? This right of con- 
straint implies a complete authority over you, but not 
however to enslave you. This constraint is always 
adequate to the right or obligation. Where can you 
find the possibility of this equality which nature 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 355 

gives her sons, if we admit an existing right of con- 
straint ? If it be a fact, that on the dissolution of 
the government we did enter into a state of nature, 
(and that we did, I humbly judge, cannot be denied, 
as at that time no government existed at all,) it de- 
stroys all claim to one farthing. This will be found 
to be true, as well upon the ground of equity and good 
coiiscience as in law, when it is considered, that when 
we went into a state of nature, the means of paying- 
debts were taken away from us by them ; because, so 
far as they had power over us, they prevented us from 
getting money to pay debts. They interdicted us 
from the pursuit of profitable commerce; from get- 
ting gold and silver, the only things they would take 
— they unjustly drove us to this extremity. By the 
concession of the worthy gentlemen, their attack upon 
us was unjust. 

^^ But, then, debts are not subject to confiscation, 
say gentlemen, because there were no inquests, no 
office found for the commonwealth. Has a debt an 
ear-mark ? Is it tangible or visible ? Has it any dis- 
criminating quality ? Unless tangible or visible, how 
is it to be ascertained or distinguished ? What does 
an inquest mean ? A solemn inquiry by a jury, by 
ocular examination, with other proofs. If an in- 
quest of office were to be had of land, a jury could tell 
the lines and boundaries of it, because they may be 
distinguished from others, and its identity may 
thereby be ascertained. If a horse be the object of 
inquiry, he can be easily distinguished from any other 
horse. In like manner every other article of visible 
property may be subject to inquests ; but such a thing 
as an inquest of a debt never existed, as far as my; 



356 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

legal knowledge extencre. What are to be the con- 
sequences, if this proceeding be requisite ? You must 
set up a court of inquisition, summon the whole na- 
tion, and ask every man liow much do you owe? 
This would be productive of endless confusion, per- 
plexity and expense, without the desired effect. 

" The laws of war and of nations require no more 
than that the sovereign power should openly signify 
its will, that the debts be forfeited. There is no par- 
ticular forensic form necessary. The question here is 
not, whether this confiscation be traversed in all the 
forms of municipal regulations. There is a question 
between Great Britain and America similar to that 
between Alexander and the Thebans : Has the sov- 
ereign signified his pleasure that debts be remitted? 
A sign is completely sufficient, if it be understood by 
the people. There is a necessity of thus speaking the 
legislative will, that the other party may know it, 
and retaliate ; for what is allowed to one, is allowed 
to both parties. This was different from the nature 
of a solemn war. War is lawful or unlawful, accord- 
ing to the manner of conducting it. In the prosecu- 
tion of a lawful solemn war, it is necessary that you 
do not depart from certain rules of moderation, 
honor, and humanity, but act according to the usual 
practice of belligerent powers. 

^^ Did the mother-country conduct the war against 
us in this manner ? We did openly say, we mean to 
confiscate your debts, and modify them, because they 
have lost their perfect external quality — they are im- 
perfect — we claim that right, as a sovereign people, 
over that species of your property. Sir, it was not 
done in a corner. It was understood by our ene- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 357 

mies. They had a right to retaliate on any species of 
our property they could find. The right of retalia- 
tion, or just retortion, for equivalent damage on any 
part of an enemy's property, is permitted to every 
nation. What right has the British nation (for if 
the nation have not the right, none of its people have) 
to demand a breach of faith in the American govern- 
ment to its citizens. I have already mentioned the 
engagement of the government with its citizens re- 
specting the paper-money — // you take it, it shall he 
money. Shall it be judged now not to be money? 
Shall this compact be broken for the sake of the 
British nation ? No, sir, the language of national 
law is otherwise. Sir, the laws of confiscation and 
paper-money made together one system, connected 
and sanctioned by the legislature, on which depended 
once the fate of our country, and on which depend 
now the happiness, the ease, and comfort of thou- 
sands of your fellow-citizens. 

" Will it not be a breach of the compact with your 
people, to say that the money is not to keep up its 
original standard in the quality given it by law? 
Wliat were the effects of this system ? What would 
have been the effects, had your citizens been apprized 
that British debts must be paid ? Would they have 
taken the money? Would they have deposited the 
money in the loan-office, if they had been warned by 
law, that they must deposit it, subject to the future 
regulations of peace ; that it should not release them 
from the creditors? However right it may appear 
now to decry the paper-money, it would have been 
fatal then; for America might have perished, with- 
out the aid and effect of that medium. Your citizens, 



368 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

trusting to this compaff, submitted to a number of 
things almost intolerable — impressments and vio- 
lences on their property — it encouraged them to exert 
themselves in defence of their property against the 
enemy during the war. If the debt in the declaration 
mentioned be recovered, the compact is subverted, as 
respecting the paper-money. And this subversion is to 
take effect for the interest of those men, whom, by 
all laws human and divine, we were obliged to con- 
sider as enemies ; men who were obliged to comply 
with the regulations and requisitions of their king; 
and our people will have been laboring, not for them- 
selves, but for the benefit of the British subject. 

" When a vessel is in danger in a storm, those who 
abide on board of her, and encoimter the dangers of 
the sea to save her, are allowed some little compensa- 
tion for salvage ; for their fidelity and gallantry in 
endeavoring to prevent her loss; while those who 
abandon her are entitled to nothing. But, in oppo- 
sition to this wise and politic principle, we, who have 
withstood the storms and dangers, receive no com- 
pensation ; but those who left the political ship, and 
joined those on the other side of the water who 
wished to sink her, and who caused her to fight eight 
long years for her preservation, shall come in at last, 
and get their full share of this vessel, and yet will 
have been exonerated from every charge. 

" For whom, then, were the people of America en- 
gaged in wa-r ? ^ot for themselves, I am sure — the 
property that they saved will not be for themselves, 
but for those whom they had a right to call enemies. 
I am not willing to ascribe to the meanest American 
the love of money, or desire of eluding the payment 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 359 

of his debts, as the motive of engaging in the war. 
!N"o, sir. He had nobler and better views. But he 
thinks himself well entitled to those debts, from the 
laws and usages of nations, as a compensation for the 
injuries he has sustained. There is a sad drawback 
on this property saved. A national debt for seven- 
teen years, considerable taxes, which were profusely 
laid during the war on lands and slaves; and, since 
the peace, we have been loaded with a heavy taxa- 
tion. 

" I know that I advocate this cause on a very ad- 
vantageous ground, when I si^eak of the right of 
salvage. The cargo on board the wrecked vessel be- 
longs to the British, it will have been saved for them ! 
but the salvage is due to us only. If you take it on 
the ground of interest — you may hold as a pledge, 
you may retain for salvage. If you take it on the 
scale of the common law, or of national law — you 
may oppose damages to debts, retain the debts, to 
retribute and compensate for the injuries they have 
done you. I have now got over and I trust estab- 
lished the first point; that is, that debts in common 
wars are subject to forfeiture, and much more so in 
a revolution war like the American war.'' * 

Having established his first position, he presents 

* These copious extracts from the report on Mr. Henry's 
first point are deemed necessary to give the reader an idea 
of his mode of argumentation, so far as it can be furnished 
by this report It would be trespassing on the indulgence 
of the proprietor of the manuscript (which has never 
been published,) and trespassing too, perhaps, on the 
patience of that portion of my. readers who can find no 
enjoyment in legal discussion, to pursue any farther this 
extended mode of analysis. 



Mk, 



360 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

his next point thus:— ^Mj next point is, that the 
British debts being so forfeited (as I conceive) can 
only be revived by the treaty ; and unless they be so 
revived, they are gone for ever. I will then consider 
how this matter stands under the treaty." He pro- 
ceeds then to show by authority, the rules by which 
treaties are to be construed ; and demonstrates, that a 
treaty can confer no benefit unless it be mutually ob- 
served with good faith ; that perfidy, on either side, 
is a forfeiture of all its advantages ; that the stipula- 
tions of a treaty are in the nature of conditions 
precedent ; that a breach on either side dissolves the 
covenant altogether, and places the parties on the 
general ground which they occupied before the 
treaty; that Great Britain had violated the treaty, 
in the moment of its ratification, by carrying off our 
slaves, and detaining with an armed force those posts 
of which she had stipulated the immediate surrender ; 
that the pretence of her having acted thus as a re- 
taliatory measure for the non-payment of the debts, 
was an insult to common understanding, because she 
began her infractions before any experiment had been 
made of a recovery of the debts ; that the notion of a 
reprisal, preceding any injury — and a retaliation, in 
advance, of any wrong on the opposite side, was so 
far from mitigating her offence, that it was a daring 
insult on the honor and good faith of this nation! 
Having, by a series of authorities directly in point, 
established the right of the American nation to re- 
gard the treaty as abolished by any perfidious infrac- 
tion of it, on the part of Great Britain, he shows next, 
that those infractions were established by the plead- 
ings in the cause; because the defendant by his sev- 



LiFIi OF PATRICK HENRY. 301 

eral pleas had specified those infractions, and the 
plaintiff, by demurring to the pleas, had admitted the 
truth of their averments. 

Great Britain, then, as a nation, having by her 
own perfidy forfeited all right to insist upon the 
treaty, and that treaty, as between the nations, being 
annulled, the next question was, whether any individ- 
ual of the British nation could claim any advan- 
tage under the treaty ? This he shows could not be 
done, because in making the treaty, the sovereigns of 
the two nations acted for all the individuals of their 
respective nations ; the individuals were bound by all 
the acts of those sovereigns, whether in making or 
abolishing a treaty. " Here,'^ said he, " are two 
moral persons, Great Britain and America, making a 
contract. The plaintiff claims and the defendant de- 
fends under and through them ; and if either nation 
or moral person has no right to benefits from such 
contract, individuals claiming under them can have 
none. The plaintiff then claims under his nation, but 
if that nation have committed perfidy respecting the 
observance of the compact, no right can be carried 
therefrom to the plaintiff. It puts him back in the 
same situation he was in before the treaty.'^ He 
shows the absurdity of considering the treaty as an- 
nulled, in relation to all the individuals, in their col- 
lective character of a nation, and yet as in full force 
for the benefit of each individual separately, -for if 
this plaintiff had a right to all the beneficial effects of 
the treaty, every man in England had the same right ; 
and he cites and reads from Vattel, a conclusive au- 
thority, to show, that the conventional law of nations 
could take its effect only from universal right, ex- 



362 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

tending equally to all me citizens or individuals of a 
nation. But to say, that America had a right to con- 
sider the treaty as void against all the individuals of 
the British nation collectively, while each and every 
individual of that nation separately, could enforce it 
upon her, was to offer to the understanding a paradox- 
ical absurdity, as insulting to common sense, as the 
conduct of Great Britain had been to the honor of 
the American nation. 

He contended further on this point, that if the 
treaty had been observed by Great Britain, and were 
of consequence still obligatory, it did not and could 
not operate where moneys had been actually paid 
into the treasury under the laws of the state ; for the 
provision of the treaty is, " that creditors on either 
side should meet with no lawful impediment to the re- 
covery of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted." 
The defendant, he said, having paid the money into 
the treasury according to the act of assembly, and the 
truth of the payment being admitted in the record, 
this article of the treaty could not support the plain- 
tiff's claim. '■ To derive a benefit from the treaty, 
the plaintiff must demand a bona fide debt ; that is, a 
debt bona fide due. The word debt implies that the 
thing is due ; for if it be not due, how can it be a 
debt? To give to these words, all debts heretofore 
contracted, a strictly literal sense, would be to au- 
thorize a renewed demand for debts which had been 
actually paid off to the creditor; for these were cer- 
tainly within the words of the treaty, being debts 
heretofore contracted : — to avoid this absurd and dis- 
honest consequence, you must look at the intention of 
the thing ; and the intention certainly was to embrace 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 363 

those cases where there had not been a legal payment. 
I ask," said he, '' why a payment made in gold and 
silver is a legal payment ? Because the coin of those 
metals is made current by the laws of this country. 
If paper be made current by the same authority, why 
should not a payment in it be equally valid? The 
British subject cannot demand payment, because I 
confront his demand with a receipt. Why will a re- 
ceipt discharge in any instance? — because it is 
founded on the laws of the country. A receipt given 
in consequence of a payment in coin, is a legal dis- 
charge, only because the laws of the country make it 
so. I ask then, why a receipt given in consequence of 
a payment into the treasury, be not of equal validity, 
since it has precisely the same foundation? It is 
expressly constituted a discharge by a legislature 
having competent authority. This debt, therefore, 
having been legally paid by the contractor, was not 
due from him at the time of making the treaty, and 
therefore is not within the intention of that instru- 
ment. ' But,' say the gentlemen on the other side, 
the one payment has the consent of the creditor, and 
the other has not : he who paid coin has the creditor's 
consent to the discharge, but he who paid money into 
the treasury wants it.' Have we not satisfied this 
honorable court, that the governing power had a right 
to put itself in the place of the British subjects? 
Having had an unquestionable right to confiscate, se- 
quester, or modify those debts as they pleased, they 
had an equally indubitable right to substitute them- 
selves in the stead of the plaintiff; otherwise, those 
authorities have been quoted in vain." He then cites 
authorities to prove, that the law of the place governs 



364 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the contract; and con^des, that the payment 
into the treasury having in this instance been made in 
consequence of a law of this commonwealth, which 
was strictly consonant with the laws of nations, and 
which had declared that such payment should operate 
as a complete and final discharge, this was not a sub- 
sisting debt, W'ithin the contemplation of the treaty, 
and remained, therefore, wholly unaffected by it. 

" The next question was, whether this court could 
take notice of this infraction of the treaty, on the 
part of Great Britain, and found their judgment 
upon it. On this question, he observes that the court 
were not called upon to step out of their appropriate 
sphere, in order to invade the province of the jury by 
trying facts ; the facts were all agreed by the plead- 
ings ; the court were merely called upon to say what 
was the law arising on those facts. 

" The existence or non-existence of the treaty, was 
a legal inference from the facts agreed ; which the 
court alone w^ere competent to decide. The plaintiff 
himself had forced this question on the court, by rely- 
ing in his replication on the treaty, as restoring his 
right to recover this debt. He sets up his right under 
this instrument expressly, and then questions the 
jurisdiction of the court to decide upon the instru- 
ment ! The treaty, quoad Jioc, is the covenant of the 
parties in this suit : the question presented by the 
pleadings is, whether the plaintiff who, by that cov- 
enant, has taken upon himself the performance of a 
precedent condition, can claim any benefit under it, 
until he shall show that this precedent condition has 
been performed. On this question, said he, the gen- 
tleman's argument is that the court have no power 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 365 

« 

to decide on the construction of the covenant, which 
he himself has brought before them ; that they have 
nothing to do with the dependence or independence of 
the stipulations, or the reciprocal rights of the par- 
ties, to claim under the covenant, without showing a 
previous performance on their respective parts ! 

" He, on the contrary, insisted that, under the con- 
stitution of the United States, the question belonged, 
peculiarly and exclusively, to the judicial depart- 
ment ; that by the constitution it was expressly pro- 
vided, that the judicial power should extend to all 
cases arising imder treaties; that the law of treaties 
embraced the whole extent of natural and national 
law ; that the constitution therefore, by referring all 
cases arising under treaties to the judiciary, had of 
necessity invested them with the power of appealing 
to that code of laws by which alone the construction, 
the operation, the efficacy, the legal existence or non- 
existence of treaties, must be tested : and by this code, 
they were told in the most emphatic terms, that he 
who violates one article of a treaty, releases the other 
party from the performance of any part of it ; that 
the reference of all cases arising under treaties, to 
the judicial department, carried with it every power 
near or remote, direct or collateral, which was es- 
sential to a fair and just decision of those cases; — 
that in every such case, the very first question was, 
Is there a treaty or not ? — not whether there has been 
a treaty — but whether there is an existingj obliga- 
tory, operative treaty. 

" To decide this question, the court must bring tho 
facts to the standard of the laws of nations; and by 
this standard it had been shown, that in the case at 



366 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

bar, there existed no t#kty from which a British 
subject could claim any benefit. That if the judicial 
department had not the power of deciding this ques- 
tion, there was no department in the American gov- 
ernment which did possess it : the state governments 
have nothing to do with it, congress cannot touch the 
subject — they may indeed declare war for a viola- 
tion ; but a nation was not to be forced to this ex- 
tremity on every occasion ; there were other modes of 
redress, short of a declaration of war, to which na- 
tions had a right to resort ; and one of them, as he 
had shown, was the power of v/ithholding from the 
perfidious violator of a treaty, those benefits which 
he claimed under it. 'Now congress could not by a 
law declare a treaty void ; it is not among those grants 
of power which the constitution makes to them ; they 
cannot, therefore, meddle with the subject in any 
other way than by a declaration of war ; neither can 
the president and senate touch it. They can make 
treaties ; but the constitution gives them no power to 
expound a treaty; much less to declare it void: they 
can only unite with the house of representatives, in 
punishing an infraction by a declaration of war. To 
the judiciary alone then, belongs this pacific powder 
of withholding legal benefits, claimed under a treaty, 
because of the mala fides [bad faith] of the party 
claiming them. 

" Now, what will be the situation of this country, 
compared with that of Great Britain, if you deny 
this power to the judiciary ? If you have not ob- 
served the treaty with good faith, and go to England, 
claiming any benefit imder the treaty, there is a 
power there, called royal prerogative, which will tell 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 367 

you : ^ N'o ; go home and act honestly, and you shall 
have your rights under the treaty.^ Your breach of 
faith will not drive them to a declaration of war; 
there is a power there which obtains redress by with- 
holding your rights, until you act with good faith : 
but where is the reciprocal and corresponding power 
in our government, if it be not in the judiciary '? It 
is noAvhere ; w^e have no redress short of a declaration 
of war. Is this one of the precious fruits of the adop- 
tion of the federal constitution, to bind us hand and 
foot with the fetters of technicality, and leave us no 
way of bursting them asunder, but by a declaration 
of war, and the effusion of human blood ! It was 
never intended. The wisdom and virtue which 
framed the constitution could never have intended to 
place the country in this humiliating and awful pre- 
dicament. Give to this power of deciding on treaties, 
which is delegated to the federal judiciary, a liberal 
construction ; give them all the incidental powers 
necessary to carry it into effect; open to them the 
whole region of natural and national law, which fur- 
nishes the only rule of expounding those national 
compacts, called treaties, and your government is un- 
mutilated, its measure of power is full up to the ex- 
igencies of the nation, and you treat on equal terms : 
but upon the opposite construction, much better 
would it be that America should have no treaties at 
all, than that having them, she should want those 
means of enforcement and redress which all other 
nations possess.'' 

Having thus established that debts are subject to 
confiscation in common wars, and much more so in 



368 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the war of the revoluti^; that Virginia was an in- 
dependent nation, and as such, competent to the exer- 
cise of this right of eminent domain — of taking to 
herself the debts of her enemies ; that she had in fact 
exercised this right, and that this debt had, under 
one of her laws of that character, been legally dis- 
charged ; that the treaty had no effect in reviving the 
claim, because the treaty had been annulled by the in- 
fractions of it on the part of Great Britain — and be- 
cause if it had not, this was not a subsisting debt, 
within the purview of the treaty; and finally, that 
the court's jurisdiction extended to every question 
touching the consequence or annulment of treaties. 
He said he had now finished his own view of the sub- 
ject, and should have taken his seat, but for the neces- 
sity of giving a particular answer to the various ob- 
jections to these principles, which had been so ably 
urged by the counsel for the plaintiff. In this part of 
his subject he shows the most masterly acuteness, ad- 
dress, and vigor. The late Mr. Hardin Burnley, who 
was present, has described some of the circumstances 
of his manner, with a very interesting minuteness : — 
" Mr. Henry," he said, " had taken ample notes of 
the arguments of his adversaries : the people would 
give him his own time to examine his notes, and select 
the argument or remark that he meant to make the 
subject of his comments, observing in these pauses 
the most profound silence. If the answer wdiich he 
was about to give was a short one, he would give it 
without removing his spectacles from his nose ; but if 
he was ever seen to give his spectacles a cant to the 
top of his wig, it was a declaration of war, and his 
adversaries must stand clear.'' 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 369 

I propose to give a few specimens only of his mode 
of answering the arguments of the opposing counsel. 
It had been urged by them, that the laws of nations 
had declared only the estate of an alien enemy liable 
to confiscation, but that debts were mere rights — 
clioses in action — and therefore not of a confiscable 
character. His answer to this is a happy mixture of 
ridicule and argument. It is short, and I shall give 
it in his own words : — 

" But a cliose in action is not liable to forfeiture. 
Why ? Because it is too terrible to be done. There 
is such a thing as straining at a gnat and swallowing 
a camel. Things much more terrible have been done 
— things, from which our nature, where it has any 
pretensions to be pure and correct, must recoil with 
horror. Show me those laws which forfeit your life, 
attaint your blood, and beggar your wife and chil- 
dren. Those sanguinary and inhuman laws to which 
every thing valuable must yield, are to be found in 
the code of that people, under whom the plaintiff now 
claims. Is it so terrible to confiscate debts, when they 
forfeit life, and corrupt the very source of your 
blood ? Though every other thing dear to humanity 
is forfeitable, yet debts, it seems, must be spared ! 
Debts are too sacred to be touched ? It is a mercan- 
tile idea that worships Mammon instead of God. A 
cliose in action shall pass, it is without your reach. 
What authority can they adduce in support of such 
conclusive pre-eminence for debts ? No political or 
human institution has placed them above other 
things. If debt be the most sacred of all earthly ob- 
ligations, I am uninformed from whence it has de- 



370 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

rived that eminence. Ult^ principle is to be found in 
the daybooks, journals, and ledgers of merchants ; not 
in the writings or reasonings of the wise and well- 
informed, the enlightened instructers of mankind. 
Can any gentleman show me any instance, where the 
life or property of a gentleman or plebeian in Eng- 
land is forfeited, and yet his debts spared ? The 
state can claim debts due to one guilty of high 
treason. Are they not subject to confiscation ? I 
concur in that sound principle, that good faith is 
essential to the happiness of mankind ; that its want 
stops all human intercourse, and renders us miser- 
able. This principle is permanent, and universal. 
Look to what point of the compass you will, you will 
find it pervading all nations. Who does not set down 
its sacred influence as the only thing that comforts 
human life? Does the plaintiff claim through good 
faith ? How does he derive his claim ? Through 
perfidy : through a polluted channel. Every thing of 
that kind would have come better from our side of 
the question, than from theirs." 

Mr. Honald had insisted, strenuously, that there 
could be no forfeiture or escheat without the inquest 
of a jury; and that no act of the legislature had, in 
fact, directly forfeited these debts. In answer to 
this, Mr. Henry says, " but the gentleman has ob- 
served, that neither the declaration of the legis- 
lature, by the act of 1Y79, that the British subjects 
had become aliens, and their property vested in the 
commonwealth, nor any other act passed on the sub- 
ject, could divest the debts out of the British credi- 
tors. It cannot be done without the solemnity of aa 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 371 

inquiry by a jury. The debt of A or B cannot be 
given to C without this solemnity. Is the little legal- 
ity of forms, which are necessary .when you speak 
of estates and titles, requisite on such mighty occa- 
sions as these? Wien the fate of a nation is con- 
cerned, you are to speak the language of nature. 
When your very existence is at stake, are you to 
speak the technical language of books, and to be con- 
fined to the limited rules of technical criticism ?^ to 
those tricks and quirks — those little twists and twirls 
of low chicanery and sophistry, which are so benefi- 
cial to professional men? Alexander said, in the 
style of that mighty man, to the Thessalians, ' You 
are free from the Thehans/ and the debts they owed 
them were thereby remitted. 

" Every other sovereign has the same right to use 
the same natural, manly, and laconic language ; not 
when he is victorious only, but in every situation, if 
he be in a state of hostility with other nations. The 
acts use not the language of technicality, they speak 
not of releases, discharges, and acquittances ; but they 
speak the legislative will, in simple speech, to the 
human understanding— a style better suited to the 
purpose, than the turgid and pompous phraseology of 
many great writers." 

Mr. Ronald, who was a native of Scotland, and at 
the commencement of the revolutionary war at least, 
had been suspected of being not very warm in the 
American cause, had urged the objection to the 
national competency of Virginia, at the time of the 
passage of those laws of confiscation and forfeiture, 
on which the defendant relied ; and in the course of 
his observations, had unfortunately used the remark, 



37-3 i^IFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

that Virginia was, at thlB^time, nothing more than 
a revolted colony. When Mr. Henry came to notice 
this remark, he gave his spectacles the war cant: — 
^^ But another observation,'^ said he, ^^ was made ; 
that by the law of nations we had not a right to 
legislate on the subject of British debts, we were not 
an independent nation ; and I thought," said he, rais- 
ing himself aloft, while his frame dilated itself be- 
yond the ordinary size, ^' that I heard the word re- 
voU!^^ At this w^ord, he turned upon Mr. Eonald 
his piercing eye, and knit his brows at him, with an 
expression of indignation and contempt, which 
seemed almost to annihilate him. It was like a stroke 
of lightning. Mr. Ronald shrunk from the withering 
look : and, pale and breathless, cast down his eyes, 
" seeming,'' says my informant, '' to be in quest of 
an auger hole, by which he might drop through the 
floor, and escape for ever from mortal sight." Mr. 
Henry perceived his suffering, and his usual good- 
nature immediately returned to him. He raised his 
eyes gently toward the court, and shaking his head 
slowly, with an expression of regret, added, ^^ I wish 
I had not heard it: for although innocently meant, 
(and I am sure that it was so, from the character of 
the gentleman wdio mentioned it,) yet the sound dis- 
pleases me — it is unpleasant." Mr. Ronald breathed 
again, and looked up, and his generous adversary dis- 
missed the topic, to resume it no more. 

It may give the reader some idea of the amplitude 
of this argument, when he is told that Mr. Henry 
was engaged three days successively in its delivery; 
and some faint conception of the enchantment which 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 373 

he threw over it, when he learns that although it 
turned entirely on questions of law, yet the au- 
dience, mixed as it was, seemed so far from being 
wearied, that they followed him throughout with in- 
creased enjoyment. The room continued full to the 
last ; and such was " the listening silence '' with 
which he was heard that not a syllable that he ut- 
tered is believed to have been lost. When he finally 
sat down, the concourse rose with a general murmur 
of admiration ; the scene resembled the breaking up 
and dispersion of a great theatrical assembly, which 
had been enjoying for the first time the exhibition 
of some new and splendid drama : the speaker of the 
house of delegates was at length able to command a 
quorum for business; and every quarter of the city, 
and, at length, every part of the state, was filled with 
the echoes of Mr. Henry's eloquent speech. 

His practice during these last years, of which we 
are now speaking, was confined pretty generally to 
cases of consequence. He did not like the profession, 
and was not willing to embark in any case for the or- 
dinary fees. I have an interesting sketch of him, in 
his professional character, during those years, from 
the same elegant pen,* which in a former page, ex- 
hibits the parallel between him and Mr. Lee in 1784. 
It is as follows : — 

" x\t the bar, Mr. Henry was eminently successful. 
When I saw him there, he must, from the course of 
his life, which had been chiefly political, have become 
somewhat rusty in the learning of his profession : yet 

* The name of this writer is not given. See above, 
p.244ff. 



374: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

I considered him as a gom lawyer ; he seemed to be 
well acquainted with the rules and canons of prop- 
erty. He would not, indeed, undergo the drudgery 
necessary for complicated business; yet I am told, 
that in the British debt cause, he astonished the public 
not less by the matter than the manner of his speech. 
It was however as a criminal lawyer that his eloquence 
had the fairest scope, and in that character I have 
seen him. He was perfect master of the passions of 
his auditory, whether in the tragic or comic line. 
The tones of his voice, to say nothing of his matter 
and gesture, were insinuated into the feelings of his 
hearers, in a manner that baffles all description. It 
seemed to operate by mere sympathy; and by his 
tones alone, it seemed to me, that he could make you 
cry or laugh at pleasure. I will endeavor to give 
you some account of this tragic and comic effect in 
two instances, which I witnessed. 

" About the year 1792, one Holland killed a young 
man in the county of Botetourt. The young man was 
popular, and lived, I think, with Mr. King, a wealthy 
merchant in Fincastle, who employed Mr. John 
Brackenridge to assist in the prosecution of Holland. 
This Holland had gone up from the county of Louisa 
as a schoolmaster, but had turned out badly, and was 
unpopular. The killing w^as in the night, and w^as 
generally believed to be murder. He was the son of 
one Doctor Holland, who was yet living in Louisa, 
and had been one of Mr. Henry's juvenile friends 
and acquaintances. It was chiefly at the instance of 
the father, and for a very moderate fee, that Mr. 
Henry undertook to go out to the district court of 
Greenbrier^ to defend the prisoner. Such were the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 375 

prejudices there, that the people had openly and re- 
peatedly declared that even Patrick Henry need not 
come to defend Holland, unless he brought a jury 
with him. On the day of trial, the court-house was 
crowded. I did not move from my seat for fourteen 
hours ; and had no wish to do so. The examination 
of the witnesses took up great part of the time, and 
the lawyers were probably exhausted. Brackenridge 
was eloquent ; but Henry left no dry eye in the court- 
house. The case I believe was murder ; though, pos- 
sibly, manslaughter only. Mr. Henry laid hold of 
this possibility with such effect as to make all forget 
that Holland 'had killed the storekeeper at all; and 
presented the deplorable case of the jury killing Hol- 
land, an innocent man. By that force of description 
which he possessed in so wonderful a degree, he ex- 
hibited, as it were, at the clerk's table, old Holland 
and his wife, who were then in Louisa ; but the draw- 
ing was so powerful, and so true to nature, that we 
seemed to see them before us, and to hear them asking 
of the jury, ' Where is our son ? What have you done 

with him ? ' 

^^ All this was done in a manner so solemn and 
touching, and a tone so irresistible, that it was impos- 
sible for the stoutest heart not to take sides with the 
criminal: as for the jury, they lost sight of the mur- 
der they were trying, and wept most profusely, with 
old Holland and his wife, whom Mr. Henry painted, 
and perhaps proved to be very respectable. During the 
examination of the evidence, the bloody clothes had 
been brought in. Mr. Henry objected to their ex- 
hibition, and applied most forcibly and pathetically 
Antony's remark on Caesar's wounds, on those dumb 



376 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

mouths which would raisaifhe stones of Rome to mu- 
tiny. He urged that this sight would totally deprive 
the jury of their judgment, which would be merged 
in their feelings. The court were divided, and the 
motion fell. The result of the trial was, that after 
the retirement of a half or quarter of an hour, the 
jury brought in a verdict of not guilty ; but on being 
reminded by the court that they might find a degree 
of homicide, inferior to murder, they altered their 
verdict to guilty of manslaugliter.'^^ 

" Mr. Henry was not less successful in the comic 
line, when it became necessary to resort to it. You 
have no doubt heard how he defeated John Hook, by 
raising the cry of heef against him. I will give you 
a similar instance. In the year 1792, there were 
many suits on the south side of James river, for in- 
flicting Lynches law.^' A verdict of five hundred 
pounds had been given in Prince Edward district 
court, in a case of this kind. This alarmed the de- 
fendant in the next case, who employed Mr. Henry 
to defend him. The case was, that a wagoner and the 
plaintiff were travelling to Richmond together, when 
the wagoner knocked down a turkey, and put it into 
his wagon. Complaint was made to the defendant, 
a justice of the peace ; both the parties were taken up, 
and the wagoner agreed to take a whipping rather 
than be sent to jail: but the plaintiff refused: the 

* Thirty-nine lashes, inflicted without trial or law, on 
mere suspicion of guilt, which could not be regularly 
proved. This lawless practice which, sometimes by the 
order of the magistrate, sometimes without, prevailed ex- 
tensively in the upper counties on James river, took its 
name from the gentleman who set the first example of it. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 377 

justice, however, gave him also a small flagellation ; 
and for this the suit was brought. The plaintiff, by 
way of taking off the force of the defence, insisted 
that he was wholly innocent of the act committed. 
Mr. Henry on the contrary contended, that he was a 
party present, aiding and assisting. In the course of 
his remarks, he expressed himself thus : — ^ But, gen- 
tlemen of the jury, the plaintiff tells you he had 
nothing to do with the turkey — I dare say, gentle- 
men, not until it was roasted,' &c. He pronounced 
this word roasted with such rotundity of voice, such 
a ludicrous whirl of the tongue, and in a manner so 
indescribably comical, that it threw every one into a 
fit of laughter at the plaintiff, who stood up in the 
place usually allotted to criminals ; and the defendant 
was let off, with little or no damages.'' 

The case of John Hook, to which my correspondent 
alludes, is worthy of insertion. Hook was a Scotch- 
man, a man of wealth, and suspected of being un- 
friendly to the American cause. During the dis- 
tresses of the American army consequent on the joint 
invasion of Cornwallis and Phillips, in 1781, a Mr. 
Venable, an army commissary, had taken two of 
Hook's steers for the use of the troops. The act had 
not been strictly legal; and on the establishment of 
peace. Hook, under the advice of Mr. Cowan, a gen- 
tleman of some distinction in the law, thought proper 
to bring an action of trespass against Mr. Venable, in 
the district court of 'New London. Mr. Henry ap- 
peared for the defendant, and is said to have dis- 
ported himself in this cause to the infinite enjoyment 
of his hearers, the unfortunate Hook always ex- 
cepted. After Mr. Henry became animated in the 



378 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

cause, says Judge StuartJ^e appeared to have com- 
plete control over the passions of his audience : at 
one time he excited their indignation against Hook: 
vengeance was visible in every countenance : again, 
when he chose to relax and ridicule him, the whole 
audience was in a roar of laughter. He painted the 
distresses of the American army, exposed almost 
naked to the rigor of a winter's sky, and marking 
the frozen ground over which they marched, with the 
blood of their unshod feet : " where was the man," 
he said, " who had an American heart in his bosom, 
who would not have thrown open his fields, his barns, 
his cellars, the doors of his house, the portals of his 
breast, to have received with open arms, the meanest 
soldier in that little band of famished patriots ? 
Wliere is the man ? There he stands ! But whether 
the heart of an American beats in his bosom, you, 
gentlemen, are to judge.'' He then carried the jury, 
by the powers of his imagination, to the plains around 
York, the surrender of which had followed shortly 
after the act complained of: he depicted the sur- 
render in the most glowing and noble colors of his elo- 
quence ; the audience saw before their eyes the hu- 
miliation and dejection of the British, as they 
marched out of their trenches, they saw the triumph 
which lighted up every patriot face, and heard the 
shouts of victory, and the cry of Washington and lib- 
erty, as it rung and echoed through the American 
ranks, and was reverberated from the hills and shores 
of the neighboring river ; " but hark ! what notes of 
discord are these which disturb the general joy, and 
silence the acclamations of victory : they are the notes 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 379 

of John Hook, hoarsely bawling through the Ameri- 
can camp, Beef! beef ! beef! " 

The whole audience were convulsed: a particular 
incident will give a better idea of the effect, than any 
general description. The clerk of the court, unable 
to command himself, and unwilling to commit any 
breach of decorum in his place, rushed out of the 
court-house, and threw himself on the grass, in the 
most violent paroxysm of laughter, where he was 
rolling, when Hook, with very different feelings, 
came out for relief into the yard also. ^' Jemmy 
Steptoe,'^ said he to the clerk, '^ what the devil ails 
ye, mon ? " Mr. Steptoe was only able to say, that he 
could not help it. " Xever mind ye," said Hook, 
" wait till Billy Cowan gets up : he'll show him the 
la'." Mr. Cowan, however, was so completely over- 
whelmed by the torrent which bore upon his client, 
that when he rose to reply to Mr. Henry, he was 
scarcely able to make an intelligible or audible re- 
mark. The cause was decided almost by acclamation. 
The jury retired for form sake, and instantly re- 
turned with a verdict for the defendant. Xor did 
the effect of Mr. Henry's speech stop here. The 
people were so highly excited by the tory audacity of 
such a suit, that Hook began to hear around him a 
cry more terrible than that of beef : it was the cry of 
tar and feathers: from the application of which it is 
said, that nothing saved him but a precipitate flight 
and the speed of his horse. 

I have not attempted, in the course of these 
sketches, to follow Mr. Henry through his profes- 
sional career. I have no materials to justify such an 
attempt. It has been, indeed, stated to me in gen- 



380 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

eral, that he appeared i9 such and such a case, and 
that he shone with great lustre; but neither his 
speeches in those cases, nor any point of his argu- 
ment, nor even any brilliant passage has been com- 
municated, so that the sketch that could be given of 
them must be either confined to a meagre catalogue 
of the causes, or the canvass must be filled up by my 
own fancy, Avhich would at once be an act of injustice 
to Mr. Henry, and a departure from that historical 
veracity, which it has been my anxious study, in 
every instance, to observe. 

I have been told, for example, that in the year 
1T74, Mr. Henry appeared at the bar of the general 
court, in defence of a married man, by the name of 
Henry Bullard, indicted for the murder of a beauti- 
ful girl, who lived in his house, to whom he had un- 
fortunately become attached, and whom in a moment 
of frantic despair, he sacrificed to his hopeless pas- 
sion. The defence is said to have been placed on the 
ground of insanity ; and it is easy to conceive, in gen- 
eral, the figure which Mr. Henry must have made in 
such a course. Those pathetic powers of eloquence, 
in which he was so pre-eminently great, had ampfe 
scope for their exercise in this case; and we can 
credit, without difficulty, the assertion, that he del- 
uged the house with tears, and effected the acquittal 
of his client. But this is all that we know of the 
case.* 

* If this is the case of Henry Bullard, who was indicted 
at the April term of 1774, for the murder of Mary Pinner, 
this honor claimed by my correspondent for Mr. Henry 
is not due; for the records of the general court show, 
that the indictment, although originally drawn for the 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 381 

So also I learn that, on some occasion after the 
war, he appeared at the bar of the house of delegates, 
in support of a petition of the officers of the Virginia 
line, who sought to be placed on the footing of those 
who had been taken on continental establishment: 
and that, after having depicted their services and 
their sufferings, in colors which filled every heart 
with sympathy and gratitude, he dropped on his 
knees, at the bar of the house, and presented such an 
appeal as might almost have softened rocks, and bent 
the knotted oak. Yet no vestige of this splendid 
speech remains ; nor have I been able, after the most 
diligent inquiries, to ascertain the year in which it 
occurred ; similar petitions having been presented for 
several successive sessions. 

It was in the year 1Y94, that he bade a final adieu 
to his profession, and retired to the bosom of his own 
family. He retired, loaded with honors, public and 
professional: and carried with him the admiration, 
the gratitude, the confidence, and the love of his 
country. 'No man had ever passed through so long 
a life of public service, with a reputation more per- 
fectly unspotted, ^or had Mr. Henry, on any oc- 
casion, sought security from censure, by that kind 
of prudent silence and temporizing neutrality, which 
politicians so frequently observe. On the contrary, 
his course had been uniformly active, bold, intrepid, 
and independent. On every great subject of public 
interest, the part which he had taken was open, de- 
charge of murder, was reduced to manslaughter by the 
grand jury; of which offence the prisoner was convicted. 
There is, probably, some mistake in the name. 



883 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY* 

cided, manly ; his countm saw his motives, heard his 
reasons, approved his conduct, rested upon his virtue 
and his vigor ; and contemplated with amazement, the 
evolution and unremitted display of his transcendent 
talents. For more than thirty years he had now stood 
before that country — open to the scrutin}^ and the 
censure of the invidious — ^yet he retired, not only 
without spot or blemish, b\it with all his laurels 
blooming full and fresh upon him — followed by the 
blessings of his almost adoring countrymen, and 
cheered by that most exquisite of all earthly posses- 
sions — the consciousness of having, in deed and in 
truth, played well his part. He had now, too, be- 
come disembarrassed of debt; his fortune was afflu- 
ent ; and he enjoyed in his retirement that ease and 
dignity which no man ever more richly deserved. 



CHAPTEK X. 

CLOSING YEARS. 

1794-1799. 

Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to 
other parts of his character, in this the concurrence 
is universal : that there never was a man better consti- 
tuted than Mr. Henry to enjoy and adorn the retire- 
ment on which he had now entered. Xothing can be 
more amiable, nothing more interesting and attach- 
ing, than those pictures which have been furnished 
from every quarter, without one dissentient stroke of 
the pencil, of this great and virtuous man in the 
bosom of private life. Mr. Jefferson says, that '^ he 
was the best-humored companion in the world." 
His disposition was indeed all sweetness; his affec- 
tions were warm, kind, and social ; his patience in- 
vincible; his temper ever unclouded, cheerful, and 
serene; his manners plain, open, familiar, and sim- 
ple ; his conversation easy, ingenuous, and unaffected, 
full of entertainment, full of instruction, and irra- 
diated with all those light and softer graces, which his 
genius threw, without effort, over the most common 
r y subjects. It is said that there stood in the court, be- 
fore his door, a large walnut-tree, under whose shade 
it was his delight to pass his summer evenings, sur- 

383 



I 



384: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

rounded by his affectioi^e and happy family, and by 
a circle of neighbors who loved him almost to idola- 
try. Here he would disport himself with all the care- 
less gayety of infancy. Here, too, he would some- 
times warm the bosoms of the old, and strike fire 
from the eyes of his younger hearers, by recounting 
the tales of other times ; by sketching with the bold- 
ness of a master's hand, those great historic incidents 
in which he had borne a part ; and by drawing to the 
life, and placing before his audience, in colors as 
fresh and strong as those of nature, the many illus- 
trious men in every quarter of the continent, with 
whom he had acted a part on the public stage. Here, 
too, he would occasionally discourse with all the wis- 
dom and all the eloquence of a Grecian sage, of the 
various duties and offices of life ; and pour forth those 
lessons of practical utility, with which long ex- 
perience and observation had stored his mind. 
Many were the visitors from a distance, old and 
young, who came on a kind of pious pilgrimage, to 
the retreat of the veteran patriot, and found him thus 
delightfully and usefully employed. The old came 
to gaze upon him with long-remembered affection, 
and ancient gratitude — the young, the ardent, and 
the emulous, to behold and admire with swimming 
eyes the champion of other days, and to look with a 
sigh of generous regret upon that height of glory 
which they could never hope to reach. Blessed be 
/ the shade of that venerable tree, ever hallowed the 
^ spot which his genius has consecrated ! 

Mr. Henry received these visits with all his char- 
acteristic plainness and modesty; and never failed 
to reward the fatigue of the journey by the warmest 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 335 

welcome, and by the unceremonious and fascinating 
familiarity, with which he would at once enter into 
conversation with his new guests, and cause them to 
forget that they were strangers, or abroad. ISTor 
must the reader suppose that in these conversations 
he assumed any airs of superiority; much less that 
his conversation was, as in some of our conspicuous 
men, a continued imperious and didactic lecture. 
On the contrary he carried into private life, all those 
principles of equality which had governed him in 
public. That ascendency, indeed, which proceeded 
from the superior energy of his mind, and the weight 
of his character, would manifest itself unavoidably, 
in the deference of his companions; but there was 
nothing in his manner which would have ever re- 
minded them of it. On the contrary, it seemed to be 
his study to cause them to forget it, and to decoy them 
into a free and equal interchange of thought. If he 
took the lead in conversation, it was not because he 
sought it; but because it was forced upon him, by 
that silent delight with which he perceived that his 
company preferred to listen to him. 

But it was in the bosom of his own family, where 
the eye of every visitor and even every neighbor was 
shut out, where neither the love of fame, nor the fear 
of censure, could be suspected of throwing a false 
light upon his character — it was in that very scene, in 
which it has been said that " no man is a hero," that 
Mr. Henry's heroism shone with the most engaging 
beauty. It was to his wife, to his children, "to his 
servants, that his true character was best known : to 
this grateful, devoted, happy circle, were best known 
the patient and tender forbearance, the kind indul- 



3S6 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

gence, the forgiving mimness, and sweetness of his 
spirit, those pure and warm affections, which were al- 
ways looking out for the means of improving their 
felicity, and that watchful prudence and circum- 
spection, which guarded them from harm. What can 
be more amiable than the playful tenderness with 
which he joined in the sports of his little children, 
and the boundless indulgence with which he received 
and returned their caresses ? "^ His visitors," says 
one of my correspondents, '^ have not infrequently 
caught him lying on the floor, with a group of these 
little ones, climbing over him in every direction ; or 
playing his violin while they danced around him with 
obstreperous mirth, while the only contest seemed to 
be who should make the most noise.'' If there be any 
bachelor so cold of heart as to be offended at this 
anecdote, I can only remind him of the remark of 
the great Agesilaus to the friend who found him rid- 
ing on a stick among his children : '^ Don't mention it, 
till you are yourself a father." 

Such were the scenes of domestic and social bliss, 
such the delicious tranquillity, in which Mr. Henry 
passed the first years of his retirement. Yet this re- 
treat, which so well deserved to have been considered 
as sacred, was doomed in a few years to be disturbed 
by the bickerings of political party. | 

Since Mr. Henry's retirement from public life, 
new parties had arisen in the United States, whose 
animosities had been carried to an alarming height. 
The federalists, who supported the measures of the 
new government throughout, were accused by their 
adversaries of a disposition to strain the constructive 
powers of the constitution to their highest possible 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 387 

pitch ; of a secret wish to convert the government into 
a substantial monarchy at least ; to which purpose, 
the assumption of state debts, the establishment of 
the funding system, and of the national bank, the 
alarming increase of the public debt, the imposition 
of a heavy load of internal taxes, the establishment 
of an army and a navy, with all their consequences of 
favoritism and extensive executive patronage, were 
alleged to have been introduced. They were branded 
w^ith the name of aristocrats, a name of reproach bor- 
rowed from the parties in France ; and were charged 
with being inimical to the cause of human liberty, as 
was said to be proved by their hostility to the progress 
of the French revolution, as well as by the alarm- 
ing character of those measures which they were 
pushing forward in America. They were suspected 
and accused of a preference for a government of 
ranks and orders, and a secret love of titles of nobil- 
ity ; of which it was said, one of their principal lead- 
ers had furnished a decisive proof, so far as he was 
concerned, by having proposed the introduction of 
titles in the continental convention which had framed 
the constitution. The party which urged these 
charges, took the name of republicans and demo- 
crats ; * declared themselves the friends of liberty 

* At the period of the formation of the nation of the 
United States, the two great political parties were the 
Federal and the Anti-Federal. The latter opposed the 
adoption and the ratification of the constitution. Failing 
to accomplish this purpose they favored the strict con- 
struction of the constitution: that is, that the federal gov- 
ernment had no powers except those that were expressly 
granted, and in all cases of doubt, the benefit of the 



388 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

and tlie people, and the m'm advocates of a govern- 
ment of the people by the people. They were de- 
voted, with enthusiasm, to the cause of liberty in 
France : considered mail, as the only title of nobility 
which ought to be admitted, and his freedom and 
happiness as the sole objects of government ; this, they 
contended, was the principle on which the American 
revolution had turned ; that the great objects of the 
revolution could be no otherwise attained, than by a 
simple, pure, economical, and chaste administration of 
the federal government ; and by restricting the sev- 
eral departments under the new constitution, to the 
express letter of the powers assigned to them by that 
instrument. 

The federalists, on the other hand, denied and re- 
pelled, with great acrimony and vehemence, the 
charges which had been urged against them by their 
adversaries. They contended that the measures com- 
plained of were warranted by the constitution, and 
were necessary to give to the federal government the 
effect which was intended by its adoption. They in- 
sisted that they were simply the friends of order and 
good government ; and in their turn branded their 
adversaries with the name of JacohinSy who having 
caught the mania from France, were for overturning 
all government, and throwing every thing into an- 

doubt was in favor of states' rights. In 1793, after the 
close of Washington's first administration, the name of the 
Anti-Federal party was changed to Republican, and in 1795 
it took the compound name of Democratic-Republican, 
which is still its formal name, though in common par- 
lance it has for many years been known simply as the 
Democratic party, 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 389 

archy and uproar, in the hope of rising themselves to 
the top of the chaos. They alleged that the opposition 
was formed of the dregs of the American people, 
headed and goaded on by a few designing men, and 
fermented into faction by the revolutionary elements 
thrown among them from abroad, in the shape of 
French and Irish emigrants and convicts. They in- 
sisted, that it was indispensably necessary to the 
peace and order of the American nation, that those 
foreign incendiaries should be driven out from the 
land, and that the licentious fury of our own ]X)pu- 
lace, should also be bridled. Under this impression, 
were passed those alien and sedition laws which are 
supposed to have put an end to the federal power in 
America. 

It is not my purpose to decide between these par- 
ties. For my purpose, it is sufficient to state the rise 
and existence of those parties, and the fact that their 
collision had convulsed the whole society. Mr. 
Henry, although removed from the immediate scene 
of contention, was still a person of too much conse- 
quence to be viewed with indifference. He had a 
weight of character which gave to his opinions a pre- 
ponderating influence on every subject, and both par- 
ties were equally anxious to gain him to their cause. 
His expressions were watched with the most anxious 
attention, and it was not long before an alarm of his 
defection from the popular cause was given. The 
first occasion of it I discover was the treaty of 1794, 
with Great Britain, commonly known by the name of 
Jay's treaty. 

It will be remembered by the reader that Mr. 
Henry had objected to the constitution, on the ground 



390 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

that it gave to the president and senate the whole 
treaty-making power. This constrnction of the in- 
strument was not denied in the state convention ; but 
on the contrary, was at least impliedly admitted ; and 
the provision was vindicated on the ground that the 
power of treating could be nowhere more safely 
and properly lodged. When therefore the republi- 
can leaders in the house of representatives claimed a 
right to participate in the ratification of Jay^s treaty, 
Mr. Henry considered them as inconsistent with 
themselves, and as departing frora their own con- 
struction of the constitution. This charoe and the 
defence have both been made known to me by the fol- 
lowing letter from Mr. Henry to his daughter, Mrs. 
Aylett: 

. " Bed Bill, August 20th, 1796. 
" My dear Betsy, 

^^ Mr. William Aylett's arrival here with your let- 
ter gave me the pleasure of hearing of your welfare, 
and to hear of that is highly gratifying to me, as I so 
seldom see you.'' [The rest of this paragraph re- 
lates to family affairs.] 

" As to the reports you have heard of my changing 
sides in politics, I can only say, they arc not true. I 
am too old to exchange my former opinions, which 
have grown up into fixed habits of thinking. True 
it is, I have condemned the conduct of our members 
in congress, because, in refusing to raise money for 
the purposes of the British treaty, they, in effect, 
would have surrendered our country bound, hand and 
foot, to the power of the British nation. This must 
have been the consequence, I think* but the reasons 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 391 

for thinking so are too tedious to trouble you with. 
The treaty is, in my opinion, a very bad one indeed. 
But what must I think of those men, whom I myself 
warned of the danger of giving the power of making 
laws by means of treaty, to the president and senate, 
when I see these same men denying the existence of 
that power, which they insisted, in our convention, 
ought properly to be cxerciycd by the president and 
senate, and by none other ? The policy of these men, 
both then and now, appears to me quite void of wis- 
dom and foresight. These sentiments I did mention 
in conversation in Richmond, and perhaps others 
which I don't remember; but sure I am, my first 
principle is, that from the British we have every 
thing to dread, when opportunities of oppressing us 
shall offer. 

" It seems that every word was watched which I 
casually dropped, and wrested to answer party views. 
Who can have been so meanly employed, I know not 
— nor do I care ; for I no longer consider myself as 
an actor on the stage of public life. It is time for 
me to retire; and I shall never more appear in a 
public character, unless some unlooked-for circum- 
stance shall demand from me a transient effort, not 
inconsistent with private life — in which I have de- 
termined to continue. I see with concern our old 
commander-in-chief most abusively treated — nor are 
his long and great services remembered, as any apol- 
ogy for his mistakes in an office to which he was to- 
tally imaccustomed. If he, whose character as our 
leader during the whole war was above all praise, is 
so roughly handled in his old age, what may be ex- 



392 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

pected by men of the common standard of character ? 
I ever wished he might keep himself clear of the 
office he bears, and its attendant difficulties — but I 
am sorry to see the gross abuse which is published of 
him. Thus, my dear daughter, have I pestered you 
with a long letter on politics, which is a subject little 
interesting to you, except as it may involve my repu- 
tation. I have long learned the little value which is 
to be placed on popularity, acquired by any other way 
than virtue ; and I have also learned, that it is often 
obtained by other means. 

" The view which the rising greatness of our 
country presents to my eyes is greatly tarnished by 
the general prevalence of deism ; which, with me, is 
but another name for vice and depravity. I am, 
however, much consoled by reflecting, that the re- 
ligion of Christ has, from its first appearance in the 
world, been attacked in vain, by all the wits, phil- 
osophers, and wise ones, aided by every powder of 
man, and its triumph has been complete. What is 
there in the wit, or wisdom of the present deistical 
writers or professors, that can compare them with 
Hume, Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, and others ? and yet 
these have been confuted, and their fame [is] de- 
caying; insomuch, that the puny efforts of Paine are 
thrown in to prop their tottering fabric, w^hose foun- 
dations cannot stand the test of time. Amongst other 
strange things said of me, I hear it is said by the 
deists that I am one of the number ; and, indeed, that 
some good people think I am no Christian. This 
thought gives me much more pain than the appella- 
tion of tory; because I think religion of infinitely 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 3§3 

higher importance than politics; and I find much 
cause to reproach myself, that I have lived so long 
and have given no decided and public proofs of my 
being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this 
is a character which I prize far above all this vrorld 
has or can boast. And amongst all the handsome 
things I hear said of you, what gives me the greatest 
pleasure is, to be told of your piety and steady vir- 
tue. Be assured there is not on title as to dispo- 
sition or character, in which my parental affection for 
you w^ould suffer a wish for your changing; and 
it flatters my pride to have you spoken of as you 
are. 

" Perhaps Mr. Koane and Anne may have heard 
the reports you mention. If it will be any object 
with them to see what I write you, show them this. 
But my wish is to pass the rest of my days, as much 
as may be, unobserved by the critics of tlie world, 
who would show but little sympathy for the deficien- 
cies to which old age is so liable. May God bless you, 
my dear Betsy, and your children. Give my love 
to Mr. Aylett, 

" And believe me ever, 

" Your affectionate father, 

'' P. Henry." 

This charge, however, had not deprived Mr. Henry 
of the confidence of his country ; for in the session of 
the legislature which followed the date of his letter, 
he was for the third time elected the governor of the 
state. The letter by which he declined the accep- 
tance of that office is as follows : — 



394: l-IFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

" To the honorable the speaker of the house of del- 
egates. 

" Charlotte County, Nov, 29th, 1796. 
'' Sir, 

" I have just received the honor of yours, inform- 
ing me of my appointment to the chief magistracy of 
the commonwealth. And I have to beg the favor of 
you, sir, to convey to the general assembly my best 
acknowledgments, and warmest gratitude for the 
signal honor they have conferred on me. I should be 
happy if I could persuade myself that my abilities 
were commensurate to the duties of that office; but 
my declining years warn me of my inability. 

'^ I beg leave, therefore, to decline the appoint- 
ment, and to hope and trust that the general assem- 
bly will be pleased to excuse me for doing so; as no 
doubt can be entertained that many of my fellow- 
citizens possess the requisite abilities for this high 
trust. 

" With the highest regard, I am sir, 
" Your most obedient servant, 

" P. Henky.'' 

This was the last testimonial of public confidence 
which Mr. Henry received from his native state. 
The rumors of his political apostacy became strong 
and general. He was a prize worth contending for; 
and it is not wonderful therefore that the rival par- 
ties observed, with the most jealous distrust, every 
advance which was made towards him by the other, 
and interpreted such advances as so many stratagems 
to gain him over: nor is it wonderful if, during the 
fever of that hot and violent struggle, many things 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 395 

were supposed to be seen, which did not in fact exist ; 
and that those which did exist were sometimes seen 
under false shapes and colors. It was reported at that 
day, that on Mr. Jefferson's resignation of the office of 
secretary of state, that office was offered to Mr. Henry 
in the confidence that, while the offer would gratify 
him, he would nevertheless reject it : however, this 
may be, it is certain that the embassy to Spain was 
offered to him during the first administration ; and 
that to France during the second.* These offers were 
known at the time ; and when compared with his ad- 
vanced age, the large family with which he was en- 
cumbered, his settled and well-known purpose of re- 
tirement, and the consequent probability that these 
offers would not be accepted, and the sentiments 
which he afterward expressed, in favor of some of 
the measures of administration, which were ex- 
tremely obnoxious in Virginia — those offers were 
considered by the republicans, as so many strokes of 
political flattery, addressed to the vanity of an old 
man, and which had been but too successful in hav- 
ing won him to the federal ranks. That he approved 
of the alien and sedition laws, as good measures, is 
undeniable; indeed, he was not a man who would 
deny any opinion that he held: and, however honest 
might have been his conviction, both of the consti- 
tutionality and expediency of these measures, it is 
equally undeniable, that his sentiments in relation 
to them, combined with the above causes, by which 
those sentiments were suspected of having been in- 
fluenced, produced an extremely unpropitious effect 
on his popularity in Virginia. 

* On the authority of Judge Winston. 



396 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

The charge of apostacy, however, implies a pre- 
vious commitment to the opposite side : but the evi- 
dence that Mr. Henry ever stood committed to the 
democratic or to any other party, (except the great 
American party of liberty and republican govern- 
ment,) has not yet been seen by the author of this 
book. At the time of his retirement, it is believed 
that the post-constitutional parties were not distinctly 
marked. He had no opportunity, after they were so 
marked, of expressing his opinion publicly in favor 
of the one side or the other. It is highly probable, that 
his opinions did not coincide throughout with those 
of either side : and it would be rather rash to infer, 
from his disapprobation of one or more measures of 
the administration, or from his general love of lib- 
erty, that he must of necessity have been attached at 
first to the democratic side. I^or would it be more 
correct to infer, from his having resisted the adop- 
tion of the federal constitution, that he was therefore 
opposed to the measures of those who administered 
it ; for the converse of this proposition, which must 
be equally true, would have thrown many more into 
the federal ranks than would have been willing to ac- 
knowledge the connection. Mr. Henry had moreover 
declared, as we have seen, in the last speech which he 
made in the state convention, in opposition to the con- 
stitution, that if it should be adopted, he would be a j 
peaceable citizen ; that he would not go to violence, 
but that he would seek the correction of whatever he 
thought amiss, hy quiet means. Upon the whole, it 
would seem more liberal, more consonant to the high 
character of Mr. Henry's mind, with his time of life, 
^.nd with that distant and feeble connection which he 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 397 

now considered himself as holding with politics, and 
indeed with the world — to believe that he looked, 
without passion or prejudice of any kind, on the 
course of the administration, approving or condemn- 
ing, according to his own judgment, without refer- 
ence to the pleasure or opinions of either side : or if 
we must suppose him under personal influence of any 
kind, would it have been unpardonable in him, to 
have been influenced by the opinions of that man, 
who had ever stood first both in his judgment and 
affections, and whom all America acknowledged as 
the father of his country ? 

Other natural causes, too, may be fairly con- 
sidered as having united their influence in producing 
this difference of political sentiment between Mr. 
Henry and the majority of his state. In the year 
1797, his health began to decline, and continued to 
sink gradually to the moment of his death. He had 
now passed through a stormy life to his sixtieth 
year, and the vigor uf his mind, exhausted more by 
past toils than by years, began to give way. Those 
energies which had enabled him to brave the power 
of Great Britain, and to push forward the glorious 
revolution which made us free, existed no longer in 
their original force. The usual infirmities of age 
and disease began to press, sorely and heavily, upon 
his sinking spirits. He was startled by that clash of 
contending parties, which rang continually around 
him, and invaded, with perpetually increasing hor- 
ror, the stillness of his retreat. His retirement cut 
him off, almost entirely, from all communication 
with those who were best able to explain the grounds, 
as well as the character and measure of opposition to 



398 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the offensive measures, wmch was intended ; and the 
spirit and views of that opposition were, no doubt, 
aggravated to him by report. Acting as those things 
did on the mind of an infirm old man ; worn out by 
the toils and troubles of the past revolution, and nat- 
urally wishing for repose ; alarmed too, and agonized 
by the hideous scenes of that revolution which was 
then going on in France; and tortured by the appre- 
hension, that those scenes were about to be acted over 
again in his own country, it is not surprising, that 
he was dismayed by the vehemence of that political 
strife which then agitated the United States ; nor 
would it be surprising, if his solicitude to allay the 
ferment and restore the peace of society, should, in 
some degree, have obscured the decisions of his mind ; 
and placed him, rather by his fears than his judgment, 
in opposition to the forcible resistance, which he had 
been erroneously led to consider as meditated by the 
democratic party. In a mind thus prepared the 
strong and animated resolutions of the Virginia as- 
sembly, in 1798, in relation to the alien and sedition 
laws, conjured up the most frightful visions of civil 
war, disunion, blood, and anarchy ; and under the 
impulse of these j)hantoms, to make what he con- 
sidered a virtuous effort for his country, he presented 
himself in Charlotte county, as a candidate for the 
house of delegates, at the spring election of 1799. 

On the day of the election, as soon as he appeared 
on the ground, he was surrounded by the admiring 
and adoring crowd, and whithersoever he moved, the 
concourse followed him. A preacher of the Baptist 
Church, whose piety was wounded by this homage 
paid to a mortal, asked the people aloud, " Why they 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 399 

thus followed Mr. Henry about ? — Mr. Henrj," said 
he, " is not a god ! " '^ I^o," said Mr. Henry, deeply 
affected both by the scene and the remark : " no, in- 
deed, my friend ; I am but a poor worm of the dust 
— as fleeting and unsubstantial as the shadow of the 
cloud that flies over your fields, and is remembered 
no more.' The tone with which this was uttered, and 
the look which accompanied it, affected every heart, 
and silenced every voice. Envy and opj^osition were 
disarmed by his humility ; the recollection of his past 
services rushed upon every memory, and he ^^ read his 
history " in their SAvimming eyes. 

Before the polls were opened, he addressed the peo- 
ple of the county to the following effect : — " He told 
them that the late proceedings of the Virginian as- 
sembly had filled him with apprehensions and alarm ; 
that they had planted thorns upon his pillow; that 
they had drawn him from that happy retirement 
which it had pleased a bountiful Providence to bestow, 
iind in which he had hoped to pass, in quiet, the re- 
mainder of his days ; that the state had quitted the 
sphere in which she had been placed by the constitu- 
tion ; and in daring to pronounce upon the validity of 
federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a 
manner not warranted by any authority, and in the 
highest degree alarming to every considerate man ; 
that such opposition, on the part of Virginia, to the 
acts of the general government, must beget their en- 
forcement by military power ; that this would proba- 
bly produce civil war ; civil war, foreign alliances ; 
and that foreign alliances must necessarily end in 
subjugation to the powers called in. He conjured the 



400 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

people to pause and consi^r well, before they rushed 
into such a desperate condition, from which there 
could be no retreat. He painted to their imaginations, 
Washington, at the head of a numerous and well-ap- 
pointed army, inflicting upon them military execu- 
tion: ^ And where (he asked) are our resources to 
meet such a conflict ? — Where is the citizen of Amer- 
ica who will dare to lift his hand against the father 
of his country ? ' A drunken man in the crowd threw 
up his arm, and exclaimed that ^ he dared to do it.^ — 
^ ISTo,' answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his 
majesty : ^ you dare not do it : in such a parricidal 
attempt, the steel would drop from your nerveless 
arm ! ' ^ The look and gesture at this moment, (says 
a correspondent,) gave to these words an energy on 
my mind unequalled by any thing that I have ever 
witnessed.' Mr. Henry, proceeding in his address 
to the people, asked — ^ whether the county of Char- 
lotte would have any authority to dispute an obedi- 
ence to the laws of Virginia ; ' and he pronounced 
Virginia to be to the Union, what the county of Char- 
lotte was to Jier. 

" Having denied the right of a state to decide upon 
the constitutionality of federal laws, he added, that 
perhaps it might be necessary to say something of 
the merits of the laws in question. His private opin- 
ion was, that they were ^ good and proper.' But, 
whatever might be their merits, it belonged to the 
people, who held the reins over the head of congress, 
and to them alone, to say whether they were accep- 
table or otherwise to Virginians ; and that this must 
be done by way of petition. That congress were as 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 401 

much our representatives as the assembly, and had as 
good a right to our confidence. He had seen with 
regret, the unlimited power over the purse and sword 
consigned to the general government ; but that he had 
been overruled, and it was now necessary to submit to 
the constitutional exercise of that power. ^ If,' said 
he, ^ I am asked what is to be done, when a people 
feel themselves intolerably oppressed, my answer is 
ready : — Overturn the government. But do not, I 
beseech you, carry matters to this length, without pro- 
vocation. Wait at least until some infringement is 
made upon your rights, and which cannot otherwise 
be redressed ; for if ever you recur to another change, 
you may bid adieu for ever to representative govern- 
ment. You can never exchange the present govern- 
ment but for a monarchy. If the administration 
have done wrong, let us all go wrong together, rather 
than split into factions, which must destroy that 
union upon which our existence hangs. Let us pre- 
serve our strength for the French, the English, the 
Germans, or whoever else shall dare to invade our 
territory, and not exhaust it in civil commotions and 
intestine wars.' He concluded, by declaring his de- 
sign to exert himself in the endeavor to allay the 
heart-burnings and jealousies which had been fo- 
mented in the state legislature; and he fervently 
prayed, if he was deemed unworthy to effect it, that 
it might be reserved to some other and abler hand, to 
extend this blessing over the community." 

This was the substance of the speech written down 
at the time by one of his hearers. " There was," says 
the writer, " an emphasis in his language, to which, 



402 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

like the force of his artiGiiation, and the commanding 
expression of his eye, no representation can do jus- 
tice; yet I am conscious of having given a correct 
transcript of his opinions, and, in many instances, 
his very expression.'^ 

Such was the last effort of Mr. Henry's eloquence : 
the power of the noonday sun was gone ; but its set- 
ting splendors were not less beautiful and touching. 
After this speech, the polls were opened ; and he w^as 
elected by his usual commanding majority. 

His intention having been generally known for 
some time before the period of the state elections, the 
most formidable preparations were made to oppose 
him in the assembly. Mr. Madison, (afterwards presi- 
dent of the United States,) Mr. Giles of Amelia, Mr. 
Taylor of Caroline, Mr. IRicholas of Albemarle, and 
a host of young men of shining talents, from every 
part of the state, were arrayed in the adverse rank, 
and commanded a decided majority in the house. 
But Heaven, in its mercy, saved him from the une- 
qual conflict. The disease which had been preying 
upon him for two years, now hastened to its crisis ; 
and on the sixth day of June, 1799, this friend of 
liberty and of man was no more 1 * 

* The specific disease to which Patrick Henry suc- 
cumbed was intussusceptation, or a telescoping of the in- 
testine. When the doctor prescribed liquid mercury, the 
patient understood perfectly that it was a last resort, and, 
in response to his questions, the doctor admitted that if 
it did not bring immediate relief it would speedily prove 
fatal. Then, " drawing down over his eyes a silken cap 
which he usually wore, and still holding the vial in his 
hand, he prayed in clear words a simple child-like prayer 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 403 

'At the session of the assembly immediately fol- 
lowing Mr. Henry's death, before the spirit of party 
had time to relent, and give way to that generous 
feeling of grateful veneration for him, which now 
pervades the state, a federal member of the house 
moved the following resolution : — 

"The general assembly of Virginia, as a testi- 
monial of their veneration for the character of their 
late illustrious fellow-citizen, Patrick Henry, whose 
unrivalled eloquence and superior talents were, in 
times of peculiar peril and distress, so uniformly, so 
powerfully, and so successfully devoted to the cause 
of freedom, and of his country— and, in order to in- 
vite the present and future generations to an imi- 
tation of his virtues, and an emulation of his f ame— 

" Resolved, That the executive be authorized and 
requested, to procure a marble bust of the said Pat- 
trick Henry, at the public expense, and to cause the 
same to be placed in one of the niches of the hall of 
the house of delegates." 

ISTothing could have been more unfortunate for the 

for his family, for his country, and for his own soul then 
in the presence of death. Afterward, in perfect calmness, 
he swallowed the medicine." The evidences of approach- 
ing death became immediately apparent, and the few mo- 
ments that remained of life were spent by Mr. Henry m 
speaking words of love and comfort to his heart-broken 
friends, especially commending to them the benefits of the 
Christian faith, and uttering his own thankfulness for 
the goodness of God which had attended him through life. 
" And when he had said these things he fell asleep." 



404 LIFE OP PATRICK HENRY. 

success of this resolution^ than the time at which it 
was brought forward, and the mover by whom it 
was offered. The time, as we have seen, was during 
that paroxysm of displeasure against Mr. Henry, 
which even his death, although it had abated, had 
not entirely allayed : and the mover w^as a gentle- 
man who had himself been recently counted on the 
republican side of the house, and was now also smart- 
ing under the charge of apostacy. All the angry pas- 
sions of the house immediately arose at such a propo- 
sition, from such a quarter. A republican member 
moved to lay the resolution on the table ; the gentle- 
man who offered it replied with warmth that if it 
were so disposed of, he would never call it up again. 
It was laid upon the table, and has been heard of no 
more. 

Thus lived, and thus died, the celebrated Patrick 
Henry of Virginia ; a man who justly deserves to be 
ranked among the highest ornaments and noblest ben- 
efactors of his country. Had his lot been cast in the 
republics of Greece or Rome, his name would have 
been enrolled by some immortal pen, among the ex- 
pellers of tyrants and the champions of liberty; the 
proudest monuments of national gratitude would 
have risen to his honor, and handed down his memory 
to future generations. As it is, his fame, as yet, is 
left to rest upon tradition, and on that short notice 
which general history can take of him ; while no me- 
morial, no slab even, raised hy the hand of national 
gratitude, points us to his grave, or tells where sleep 
the ashes of the patriot and the sage. May we not 
hope, that this reproach upon the state will soon be 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 405 

wiped away, and that ample atonement will be made 
for our past neglect ? * 

* His grave is now covered with a plain marble slab, 
on which, in addition to his name and the dates of his 
birth and death are inscribed the words: "His fame is 
his best epitaph," 

In the grounds of the State Capitol of Virginia, at Rich- 
mond, there is a bronze statue of Henry of heroic size, 
the work of Thomas Crawford, one of a group of six 
statues of Virginians of the revolutionary period surround- 
ing an equestrian statue of Washington. 



CHAPTEK XL 

PERSONAL TRAITS CONCLUSION". 

> Mr. Henry^ by his two marriages, was the father 
of fifteen children. By his first wife he had six, of 
whom two only survived him ; by his last, he had 
six sons and three daughters, all of whom, together 
with their mother, were living at his death. 

He had been fortunate during the latter part of his 
life ; and, chiefly by the means of judicious pur- 
chases of lands, had left his family, large as it was, 
not only independent, but rich. 

In his habits of living, he was remarkably tem- 
perate and frugal. He seldom drank any thing but 
water ; and his table, though abundantly spread, was 
furnished only with the most simple viands, ^eces- 
sity had imposed those habits upon him in the earlier 
part of his life ; and use, as well as reason, now made 
them his choice. 

His children were raised with little or no restraint. 
He seems not to have thought very highly of early 
education. It is indeed probable, that his own suc- 
cess, which was attributable almost entirely to the 
natural power of his mind, had diminished the impor- 
tance of an extensive education in his view. But al- 

406 



■ LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 407 

thoTi^li they were suffered to run wild for some years, 
aud indeed, committed to the sole guidance of nature 
tea much later period than usual, yet they were fin- 
llty all well educated; and not^only by the reflec ed 
worth of their father, but by their own merits have 
Ilways occupied a most respectable station m so- 



cietv. 



Mr Henry's conversation was remarkably pure 
anTchaste; He never swore He was never heard 
to take the name of his Maker m vam. He was a 
sincere Christian, though after a form of his own 
for he was never attached to any particular religious 
so ietv and never, it is believed, communed with any 
hurch. A friend who visited him not long l^Jore h. 
death, found him engaged m reading the Bible 
'' He e," said he, holding it up, " is a book worth 
more than all the other books that were ever printed. 
3 t is my misfortune never to have ound time to 
LL i wfth the proper attention ,nd feelmg, til 
ate y I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is no 
\Tioo late." He was much Pleased with Sc^me 
Jenyns' view of the internal evidences of the thus 
tian religion; so much so, that about the year 1790 
Thad an impression of it struck at his o- expens 
,nd distributed among the people. His o her fa^or 
^works on the subiect were Doddridge's Kise and 
Progress of Keligion in the Soul," and Bu ler = 
" Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed 
ThtlattL work, he used at one period of h^s life to 
stvle by way of pre-eminence, hu BtbU. The selec 
on p oves not only the piety of his temper, but the 
correctness of his taste, and his relish for profound 
and vigorous disquisition. 



408 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

His morals were strict^ As a husband, a father, a 
master, he had no superior. He was kind and hospit- 
able to the stranger, and most friendly and accommo- 
dating to his neighbors. In his dealings with the 
world, he was faithful to his promise, and punctual 
in his contracts, to the utmost of his power. 

We do not claim for him a total exemption from 
the failures of humanity. Moral perfection is not 
the property of man. '' The love of money is said to 
have been one of Mr. Henry's strongest passions. In 
his desire for accumulation, he was charged with 
wringing from the hands of his clients, and more 
particularly those of the criminals whom he de- 
fended, fees too exorbitant. He was censured, too, 
for an attempt to locate the shores of the Chesapeake, 
which had heretofore been used as a public common, 
although there was, at that time, no law of the state 
which protected them from location. In one of his 
earlier purchases of land, he was blamed also for hav- 
ing availed himself of the existing laws of the state, 
in paying for it in the depreciated paper-currency of 
the country ; nor was he free from censure on account 
of some participation which he is said to have had in 
the profits of the Yazoo trade. He was accused, too, 
of having been rather more vain of his wealth, toward 
the close of his life, than became a man so great in 
other respects. Let these things be admitted, and let 
the man who is without fault cast the first stone. In 
mitigation of these charges, if they be true, it ought 
to be considered that Mr. Henry had been, during the 
greater part of his life, intolerably oppressed by pov- 
erty and all its distressing train of consequences ; that 
the family for which he had to provide was very 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 409 

large; and that the bar, although it has heen called 
the road to honor, was not in those days the road to 
wealth. With these considerations in view, justice, 
not to say charity, may easily pardon him for having 
considered only the legality of the means which he 
used to acquire an independence ; and she can easily 
excuse him too, for having felt the success of his en- 
deavors a little more sensibly than might have been 
becoming. He was certainly neither proud, nor hard- 
hearted, nor penurious : if he was either, there can be 
no reliance on human testimony; which represents 
him as being, in his general intercourse with the 
world, not only rigidly honest, but one of the kindest, 
gentlest, and most indulgent of human beings. 

While we are on this ungrateful subject of moral 
imperfection, the fidelity of history requires us to 
notice another charge against Mr. Henry. His pas- 
sion for fame is said to have been^ too strong ; he was 
accused of a wish to monopolize the public favor; 
and under the influence of this desire, to have felt no 
gratification in the rising fame of certain conspicu- 
ous characters ; to have indulged himself in invidious 
and unmerited remarks upon them, and to have been 
at the bottom of a cabal against one of the most emi- 
nent. If these things were so — alas ! poor human na- 
ture ! It is certain that these charges are very incon- 
sistent with his general character. So far from being 
naturally envious, and disposed to keep back modest 
merit, one of the finest traits in his character was, 
the parental tenderness with which he took by the 
hand every young man of merit, covered him with 
his segis in the legislature, and led him forward at 
the bar. In relation to his first great rival in elo- 



410 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

quence, Richard Henry iffe, he not only did ample 
justice to him on every occasion, in public, but de- 
fended his fame in private, with all the zeal of a 
brother; as is demonstrated by an origina"l corre- 
spondence between those two eminent men, now in the 
hands of the author. Of Colonel Innis, his next great 
rival, he entertained, and uniformly expressed, the 
most exalted opinion; and in the convention of 1788, 
as will be remembered, paid a compliment to his elo- 
quence, at once so splendid, so happy, and so just, 
that it will live for ever. The debates of that con- 
vention abound with the most unequivocal and ar- 
dent declarations of his respect, for the talents and 
virtues of the other eminent gentlemen who Avere ar- 
rayed against him — Mr. Madison, Mr. Pendleton, 
Mr. Randolph. Even the justly great and overshad- 
owing fame of Mr. Jefferson never extorted from 
him, in public at least, one invidious remark; on the 
contrary, the name of that gentleman, who was then 
in France, having been introduced into the debates of 
the convention, for the purpose of borrowing the 
weight of his opinion, Mr. Henry spoke of him in 
the strongest and warmest terms, not only of admira- 
tion but of affection — styling him '^ our illustrious 
fellow-citizen," — " our enlightened and worthy coun- 
tryman," — ^' our common friend." 

The inordinate love of money and of fame are 
certainly base and degrading passions. They have 
sometimes tarnished characters other^vise the most 
bright, but they will find no advocate or apologist in 
any virtuous bosom. In relation to Mr. Henry, how- 
ever, we may be permitted to doubt whether the facts 
on which these censures (so inconsistent with his gen- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 411 

eral character) are grounded, have not been miscon- 
ceived ; and whether so much of them as is really true 
may not be fairly charged to the common account of 
human imperfection. 

Mr. Henry's great intellectual defect was his in- 
dolence, y To this it was owing, that he never pos- 
sessed that alertness and versatility of mind, which 
turns promptly to every thing, attends to every thing, 
arranges every thing, and by systematizing its oper- 
ations, despatches each in its proper time, and place, 
and manner. To the same cause it is to be ascribed, 
that he never possessed that patient drudgery, and 
that ready, neat, copious, and masterly command of 
details, which forms so essential a part of the duties 
both of the statesman and the lawyer. Hence, too, 
he did not avail himself of the progress of science and 
literature, in his age. He had not, as he might have ^ 
done, amassed those ample stores of various, useful, 
and curious knowledge, which are so naturally ex- 
pected to be found in a great man. His library was 
extremely small ; composed not only of a very few 
books, but those, too, commonly odd volumes. Of 
science and literature, he knew little or nothing more 
than was occasionally gleaned from conversation. It 
is not easy to conceive, what a mind like his might 
have achieved in either or both of these w^alks, had it 
been properly trained at first, or industriously oc- 
cupied in those long intervals of leisure which he 
threw away. One thing, however, may be safely pro- 
nounced ; that had that mind of Herculean strength 
been either so trained, or so occupied, he would have 
left behind him some written monument, compared 
with which even statues and pillars would have been 



412 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

but the ephemera? of a ^y. But he seems to have 
been of Hobbes's opinion, who is reported to have said 
of himself, " that if he had read as much as other 
men, he should have been as ignorant as they were." * 
Mr. Henry's book was the great volume of human na- 
ture. In this, he was more deeply read than any of 
his countrymen. He knew men thoroughly; and 
hence arose his great power of persuasion, f His 
preference of this study, is manifested by the follow- 
ing incident : — he met once, in a bookstore, with the 
late Mr. Ralph Wormley, who, although a great book- 
worm, was infinitely more remarkable for his ignor- 
ance of men, than Mr. Henry was for that of books. 
— " What, Mr. Wormley," said he, '' still buying 
books ? " " Yes," said Mr. Wormley, " I have just 
heard of a new work, which I am extremely anxious 
to peruse." ^' Take my w^ord for it," said he, " Mr. 
Wormley, we are too old to read books : read men — 
they are the only volume that we can read to advan- 
tage." But Mr. Henry might have perused both 
with infinite advantage not only to himself, but to 
his country, and to the world ; and that he did not do 
it may, it is believed, be fairly ascribed rather to the 
indolence of his temper, than the deliberate decision 
of his judgment. 

Judge Winston says, that " he was, throughout life, 
negligent of his dress : " but this, it is apprehended, 
applied rather to his habits in the country than to his 

* Bayle. Article Hobbes. 

t " It is in vain," says the Chancellor D'Aguesseau, " that 
the orator flatters himself with having the talent to per- 
suade men, if he has not acquired that of knowing them." 
Discourse, 1., p. 1. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 413 

appearance in public. At the bar of the general 
court, he always appeared in a full suit of black 
cloth, or velvet, and a tie wig, which was dressed 
and powdered in the highest style of forensic fashion ; 
in the winter season, too, according to the costume of 
the day, he wore over his other apparel an ample 
cloak of scarlet cloth ; and thus attired, made a figure 
bordering on grandeur. While he filled the executive 
chair, he is said to have been justly attentive to his 
dress and appearance ; " not being disposed to afford 
the occasion of humiliating comparisons between the 
past and present government." 

He had long since, too, laid aside the offensive rus- 
^ticity of his juvenile manners. His manners, indeed, 
were still unostentatious, frank, and simple ; but they 
had all that natural ease and unaffected gracefulness, 
which distinguish the circles of the polite and well- 
bred. On occasions, too, where state and ceremony 
were expected, there was no man who could act better 
his part. I have had a description of Mr. Henry, en- 
tering, in the full dress which I have mentioned, the 
hall of delegates, at whose bar he was about to appear 
as an advocate, and saluting the house, all around, 
with a dignity and even majesty, that would have done 
honor to the most polished courtier in Europe. This, 
however, was only on extraordinary occasions, when 
such a deportment was expected, and was properly in 
its place. In general, his manners were those of the 
plain Virginian gentleman — kind, open, candid and 
conciliating, warm without insincerity, and polite 
without pomp, neither chilling by his reserve, nor 
fatiguing by his loquacity, but adapting himself, 
without an effort, to the character of his company. 



414 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

'' He would be pleased ^d cheerful/' says a corre- 
spondent, " with persons of any class or condition, 
vicious and abandoned persons only excepted; he 
preferred those of character and talents, but would be 
amused with any who could contribute to his amuse- 
ment." He had himself a vein of pleasantry which 
was extremely amusing, without detracting from his 
dignity. His companions, although perfectly at their 
ease with him, were never known to treat him with 
degrading familiarities. Their love and their re- 
spect for him equally forbade it. I^or had they any 
dread of an assault upon their feelings ; for there was 
nothing cruel in his wit. The tomahawk and scalp- 
ing-knife were no part of his colloquial apparatus. 
He felt no pleasure in seeing the victim writhe under 
his stroke. The benignity of his spirit could not have 
borne such a sight without torture. He found him- 
self happiest in communicating happiness to others. 
His conversation was instructive and delightful; 
stately where it should be so, but in general, easy, fa- 
miliar, sprightly, and entertaining; always, however, 
good-humored, and calculated to amuse without 
wounding. 

As a specimen of this light and good-natured pleas- 
antry the following anecdote has been furnished : Mr. 
Henry, together with Mr. Richard H. Lee, and sev- 
eral other conspicuous members of the assembly, were 
invited to pass the evening and night at the house of 
Mr. Edmund Randolph, in the neighborhood of Rich- 
mond. Mr. Lee, who was as brilliant and copious in 
conversation as in debate, had amused the company to 
a very late hour, by descanting on the genius of Cer- 
vantes, particularly as exhibited in his chef d^ceuvre. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 416 

Don Quixote. The dissertation had been continued 
rather too long: the company began to yawn, when 
Mr. Henry, who had observed it, although Mr. Lee 
had not, rose slowly from his chair, and remarked as 
he walked across the room, that Don Quixote was cer- 
tainly a most excellent work, and most skilfully 
adapted to the purpose of the author : ^' but," said he, 
" Mr. Lee," stopping before him, wdth a most signifi- 
cant archness of look, " you have overlooked in your 
eulogy one of the finest things in the book." " Wnoi 
is thatf " asked Mr. Lee. '' It is," said Mr. Henry, ^ 
" that divine exclamation of Sancho, ^ Blessed he ihe 
man that first invented sleep: it covers one all over, i 
lihe a cloak: " Mr. Lee took the hint ; and the com- 
pany broke up in good humor. 

His quick and true discernment of characters, and 
his prescience of political events, were very much ad- 
mired. The following examples of each have been 
furnished by Mr. Pope : — 

Mr. Gallatin came to A^irginia when a very young 
man, he was obscure and unknown, and spoke the 
English language so badly, that it w^as with difficulty 
he could be understood. He w^as engaged in some 
agency which made it necessary to present a petition 
to the assembly, and endeavored to interest the lead- 
ing members in its fate, by attempting to explain, 
out of doors, its merits and justice. But they could 
not understand him well enough to feel any interest 
either for him or his petition. In this hopeless con- 
dition he waited on Mr. Henry, and soon felt that 
he was in different hands. Mr. Henry, on his part, 
w^as so delighted with the interview, that he spoke of 
Hr. Gallatin every where in raptures — ^he declared 



416 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

him, without hesitation or doubt, to be the most sensi- 
ble and best informed man he had ever conversed 
with, ^^ he is, to be sure," said he, " a most astonishing 
man ! " The reader well knows how eminently Mr. 
Gallatin has since fulfilled this character; * and con- 
sidering the very disadvantageous circumstances un- 
der which he was seen by Mr. Henry, it is certainly 
a striking proof of the superior sagacity of the obser- 
ver. 

In relation to his political foresight, the following 
anecdote is in Mr. Pope's own words : — " In the year 
1798, after Bonaparte had annihilated five Austrian 
armies, and, flushed with victory, was carrying away 
every thing before him, I heard Mr. Henry in a 
public company observe, (shaking his head after his 
impressive manner) — ^ It won't all do! the present 
generation in France is so debased by a long despo- 
tism, they possess so few of the virtues that constitute 

♦Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), was born and educated in 
Geneva, and came to the United States in 1780. He be- 
came eminent in various departments of statesmanship. 
In congress he was said by John Randolph to be unrivaled 
in debate, while Judge Story ranked him with Hamilton 
in statesmanship. From 1795 to 1801 he served in Con- 
gress, after which he served for twelve years, first under 
Jefferson and then under Madison, as Secretary of the 
Treasury. In negotiating with England the treaty of 
Ghent, which was signed in 1814, he acquired an enviable 
reputation for skill in diplomacy. For seven years he 
was Minister of the United States to France, and later 
he was appointed on a mission to England. While he bore 
himself with great credit and honor to the country in 
every place of responsibility, his fame rests chiefly on his 
abilities as a financier, in which he has never been sur- 
passed in the history of this country. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 417 

the life and soul of republicanism, that they are in- 
capable of forming a correct and just estimate of ra- 
tional liberty. Their revolution will terminate dif- 
ferently from what you expect — their state of an- 
archy will be succeeded by despotism ; and I should 
not be surprised, if the very man at whose victories 
you now rejoice, should, Cffisar-like, subvert the lib- 
erties of his country. All who know me,' continued 
Mr. Henry, ^ know that I am a firm advocate for lib- 
erty and republicanism ; I believe I have given some 
evidences of this. I wish it may not be so, but I am 
afraid the event will justify this prediction.' " 

The following is the fullest description which the 
author has been able to procure of Mr. Henry's per- 
son. He was nearly six feet high ; spare, and what 
may be called raw-boned, with a slight stoop of the 
shoulders; his complexion was dark, sunburnt, and 
sallow, without any appearance of blood in his 
cheeks; his countenance grave, thoughtful, penetrat- 
ing, and strongly marked with the lineaments of deep 
reflection ; the earnestness of his manner, united with 
an habitual contraction or knitting of his brows, and 
those lines of thought with which his face was pro- 
fusely furrowed, gave to his countenance, at some 
times, the appearance of severity; yet such was the 
power which he had over its expression, that he could 
shake off from it, in an instant, all the sternness of 
winter, and robe it in the brightest smiles of spring. 
His forehead was high and straight, yet forming a 
sufficient angle with the lower part of his face; his 
nose somewhat of the Roman stamp, though, like that 
which we see in the bust of Cicero, it was rather long 

27 



418 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

than remarkable for its^esarean form ; of the color 
of his eyes, the accounts are almost as various as 
those which we have of the color of the chameleon i 
they are said to have been blue, gray, what Lavater 
calls green, hazel, brown, and black — the fact seems 
to have been that they were of a bluish-gray, not 
large; and being deeply fixed in his head, overhung 
by dark, long, and full eyebrows, and farther shaded 
by lashes that were both long and black, their appar- 
ent color was as variable as the lights in which they 
were seen, but all concur in saying that they were, un- 
questionably, the finest feature in his face — brilliant, 
full of spirit, and capable of the most rapidly-shifting 
and powerful expression, at one time piercing and 
terrible as those of Mars,' and then again soft and 
tender as those of Pity herself; his cheeks were hol- 
low, and his chin was long, but well formed, and 
rounded at the end, so as to form a proper counter- 
part to the upper part of his face. " I find it difii- 
cult," says the correspondent from whom I have bor- 
rowed this portrait, '^ to describe his mouth ; in which 
there was nothing remarkable, except when about to 
express a modest dissent from some opinion on which 
he was commenting. He then had a sort of half- 
smile, in which the want of conviction was perhaps 
more strongly expressed, than the satirical emotion, 
which probably prompted it. His manner and ad- 
dress to the court and jury might be deemed the ex-, 
cess of humility, diffidence, and modesty. If, as, 
rarely happened, he had occasion to answer any re- 
mark from the bench, it was impossible for Meekness 
herself to assume a manner less presumptuous. But 
in the smile of which I have been speaking, you might 



LIFE OP PATRICK HENRY. 419 

anticipate the want of conviction, expressed in Lis 
answer, at the moment that he submitted to the su- 
perior wisdom of the court, with a grace that would 
have done honor to Westminster hall. In his reply to 
counsel, his remarks on the evidence, and on the con- 
duct of the parties, he preserved the same distin- 
guished deference and politeness, still accompanied, 
however, bj the never-failing index of this skeptical 
smile, where the occasion prompted." In short, his 
features were manly, bold, and well proportioned, 
full of intelligence, and adapting themselves intui- 
tively to every sentiment of his mind, and every feel- 
ing of his heart. His voice was not remarkable for 
its sweetness ; but it was firm, of full volume, and 
rather melodious than otherwise. Its charms con- 
sisted in the mellowness and fulness of its note, the 
case and variety of its inflections, the distinctness of 
its articulation, the fine effect of its emphasis, the fe- 
licity with which it attuned itself to every emotion, 
and the vast compass which enabled it to range 
through the whole empire of human passion, from 
the deep and tragic half-whisper of horror, to the 
wildest exclamation of overwhelming rage. In mild 
persuasion, it was as soft and gentle as the zephyr of 
spring ; while in rousing his countrymen to arms, the 
winter storm that roars along the troubled Baltic, was 
not more awfully sublime. It was at all times per- 
fectly under his command ; or rather, indeed, it 
seemed to command itself and to modulate its notes 
most happily to the sentiment he was uttering. It 
never exceeded, or fell short of the occasion. There 
was none of that long-continued and deafening vocif- 
eration, which always takes place when an ardent 



420 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

speaker has lost possessiih of himself — ^no monoton- 
ous clangor, no discordant shriek. Without being 
strained, it had that body and enunciation which 
filled the most distant ear, without distressing those 
which were nearest him : hence it never became 
cracked or hoarse, even in his longest speeches, but 
retained to the last all its clearness and fulness of in- 
tonation, all the delicacy of its inflection, all the 
charms of its emphasis, and enchanting variety of its 
cadence. 

His delivery was perfectly natural and well timed. 
It has indeed been said, that, on his first rising, there 
was a species of sub-canhis * very observable by a 
stranger, and rather disagreeable to him ; but that in 
a very few moments even this itself became agreeable, 
and seemed, indeed indispensable to the full effect of 
his peculiar diction and conceptions. In point of time, 
he was very happy: there was no slow and heavy 
dragging, no quaint and measured drawling, with 
equidistant pace, no stumbling and floundering 
among the fractured members of deranged and broken 
periods, no undignified hurry and trepidation, no re- 
calling and recasting of sentences as he went along, 
no retraction of one word and substitution of another 
not better, and none of those affected bursts of almost 
inarticulate impetuosity, which betray the rhetori- 
cian rather than display the orator. On the con- 
trary, ever self-collected, deliberate and dignified, he 
seemed to have looked through the whole period be- 
fore he commenced its delivery ; and hence his delivery 
was smooth, and firm, and well accented ; slow enough 

* Undertone, 



LII'E OF PATRICK HENRY. 4^1 

to take along with him the dullest hearer, and yet so 
commanding, that the quick had neither the power 
nor the disposition to get the start of him. Thus he 
gave to every thought its full and appropriate force ; 
and to every image all its radiance and beauty. 

No speaker ever understood better than Mr. Henry 
the true use and power of the pause : and no one ever 
practised it with happier effect. His pauses were 
never resorted to for the purpose of investing an in- 
significant thought with false importance ; much less 
were they ever resorted to as a finesse, to gain time 
for thinking. The hearer was never disposed to ask, 
" why that pause ? " nor to measure its duration by 
a reference to his watch. On the contrary, it always 
came at the very moment, when he would himself 
have wished it, in order to weigh the striking and 
important thought which had just been uttered ;^ and 
the interval was always filled by the speaker with a 
matchless energy of look, which drove the thought 
home through the mind and through the heart. 

His gesture, and this varying play of his features 
and voice, were so excellent, so exquisite, that many 
have referred his power as an orator principally to 
that cause ; yet this was all his own, and his gesture, 
particularly, of so peculiar a cast, that it is said it 
would have become no other man. I do not learn that 
it was very abundant ; for there was no trash about 
it ; none of those false motions to which undisciplined 
speakers are so generally addicted ; no chopping nor 
sawing of the air; no thumping of the bar to ex- 
press an earnestness, which was much more power- 
fully as well as more elegantly expressed by his eye 
and his countenance. Whenever he moved his arm, 



422 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

or his hand, or even his ^fager, or changed the posi- 
tion of his body, it was always to some purpose ; noth- 
ing was inefficient ; every thing told ; every gesture, 
every attitude, every look was emphatic ; all was ani- 
mation, energy, and dignity. Its great advantage 
consisted in this — that various, bold, and original as 
it was, it never appeared to be studied, affected, or 
theatrical, or " to overstep,'' in the smallest degree, 
" the modesty of nature ; " for he never made a ges- 
ture, or assuhaed an attitude, which did not seem 
imperiously demanded by the occasion. Every look, 
every motion, every pause, every start, was com- 
pletely filled and dilated by the thought which he 
was uttering, and seemed indeed to form a part of 
the thought itself. His action, however strong, was 
never vehement. He was never seen rushing forward, 
shoulder foremost, fury in his countenance, and 
frenzy in his voice, as if to overturn the bar, and 
charge his audience sword in hand. His judgment 
was too manly and too solid, and his taste too true, 
to permit him to indulge in any such extravagance. 
His good sense and his self-possession never de- 
serted him. In the loudest storm of declamation, in 
the fiercest blaze of passion, there was a dignity and 
temperance which gave it seeming. He had the rare 
faculty of imparting to his hearers all the excess of 
his own feelings, and all the violence and tumult of 
his emotions, all the dauntless spirit of his resolution, 
and all the energy of his soul, without any sacrifice 
of his own personal dignity, and without treating his 
hearers otherwise than as rational beings. He was 
not the orator of a day; and therefore sought not to 
build his fame on the sandy basis of a false taste, fos- 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 423 

tered, if not created, by himself. He spoke for im- 
mortality ; ' and therefore raised the pillars of his 
glory on the only solid foundation — the rock of Na- 
ture. 

So much has been already said, incidentally, of his 
attainments, and the character of his mind, both as a 
statesman and an orator, that little remains to be add- 
ed in a general way. As a statesman, the quality 
which strikes us most is his political intrepidity : and 
yet it has sometimes been objected to him, that he 
waited on every occasion, to see which way the popu- 
lar current was sitting, when he would artfully throw 
himself into it, and seem to guide its course. Noth- 
ing can be more incorrect : it would be easy to multi- 
ply proofs to refute the charge ; — but I shall content 
myself with a few which are of general notoriety. 

/ 1. The American revolution is universally admit- 
\ted to have begun in the upper circles of society. It 
turned on principles too remote and abstruse for the 
apprehension or consideration of the plain people. 
Had it depended on the unenlightened mass of the 
community, no doubt can be entertained at this day 
that the tax imposed by parliament would have been 
paid without a question. Since, then, the upper cir- 
cle of society did not take its impulse from the peo- 
ple, the only remaining inquiry is, who gave the 
revolutionary impulse to that circle itself? It was 
unquestionably Patrick Henry. This is affirmed by 
Mr. Jefferson ; it is demonstrated by the resistance 
given to Mr. Henry's measures, by those who were af- 
terward the stanchest friends of the revolution ; it is 
further proved, by the sentiment before noticed, with 



424 LiFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

"which Doctor Franklin, who was then considered as 
the first American statesman, dismissed Mr. Inger- 
soll, on his departure from London ; a sentiment, 
which evinces beyond doubt, that Doctor Franklin 
considered resistance to the British power to be, at 
that time, premature ; and finally, this honor is as- 
signed to Mr. Henry, I perceive, by a historian of 
Massachusetts, the only state which has ever pre- 
tended to dispute the palm with Virginia.* On this 
great occasion, then, it is manifest, that he did not 
wait for the popular current ; but on the contrary, 
that it was he alone, who by his single power moved 
the mighty mass of stagnant waters, and changed the 
silent lake into a roaring torrent. When it is re- 

* The historian to whom I allude, is Mrs. Mercy Warren, 
who is said to be the widow of the celebrated Gen. War- 
ren, the hero of Bunker's Hill, These are her words: — 
" The house of burgesses of Virginia were the first who 
formally resolved against the encroachments of power, and 
the unwarrantable designs of the British parliament. The 
novelty of their procedure, and the boldness of spirit that 
marked the resolutions of that assembly, at once aston- 
ished and disconcerted the officers of the crown, and the 
supporters of the measures of administration. These res- 
olutions were ushered into the house on the thirtieth of 
May, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five by Patrick 
Henry, Esq., a young gentleman of the law, till then un- 
known in political life. He was a man possessed of strong 
powers, much professional knowledge, and of such abilities 
as qualified him for the exigencies of the day. Fearless 
of the cry of treason, echoed against him from several 
quarters, he justified the measure and supported the re- 
solves, in a speech that did honor both to his understand- 
ing and his patriotism." — Mrs. Warren's History of the 
American Revolution, vol. 1., p. 28. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 425 

membered too, that he was then young and obscure, 
and of course without personal influence, that this 
step was the result of his own solitary reflection, and 
that he was perfectly aware of the personal danger 
which must attend it, we can require nothing further 
to satisfy us, that he was a bold, original, indepen- 
dent politician, who thought for himself, and pursued 
the dictates of his own judgment, wholly regardless 
of personal consequences. 

2. Again, in the spring of 1775, that upper circle, 
which still headed the revolution, were disposed to 
acquiesce in the plunder of the magazine, and ex- 
erted their utmost efforts to allay the ferment which 
it had excited. They had, in fact, succeeded ; and the 
people were every where composed, save within the 
immediate sphere of Mr. Henry's influence. The 
reader has already seen, that it was he who on that 
occasion excited the people, not who was excited by 
them ; that he put them into motion, and avowed to 
his'confidential friends, at the time, the motives of 
policy by which he was actuated ; that he placed him- 
self at the head of an armed band, which he had him- 
self convened for the purpose; and in spite of the 
entreaties and supplications of the patriots at Wil- 
liamsburg, and in defiance of the threats of Dun- 
more and his myrmidons, pressed firmly and intrep- 
idly on, until the object of his expedition was com- 
pletely obtained. 

3. So also in the state convention, the same year, 
the old patriotic leaders were disposed still to rely on 
the efficacy of petitions, memorials, and remon- 
strances; it was Mr. Henry who proposed, and in 



426 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

spite of their opposition, #Wiich was of so strenuous 
and serious a character, that one of them in making 
it, is said to have shed tears most profusely, carried 
the bold measure of arming the militia. This was 
not dictated by the people. The fact was, that at that 
day, the people placed themselves in the hands of 
their more enlightened friends ; they never ventured 
to prescribe either the time, the manner, or the meas- 
ure of resistance ; and there can be no room for a can- 
did doubt that, but for the bold spirit and overpower- 
ing eloquence of Patrick Henry, the people would 
have followed the pacific counsels of Mr. Randolph, 
Mr. ISTicholas, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe, and other 
men of acknowledged talents and virtue. It was Mr. 
Henry, therefore, who led both the people and their 
former leaders. The latter indeed, came on so 
reluctantly at first, that they may be said to have 
been rather dragged along than led ; they did come, 
however, and acquiring warmth by their motion, 
made ample amends thereafter for their early hesi- 
tation.* 

4. About the close of the war, again, when he pro- 
posed to permit the return of that obnoxious class of 
men called British refugees and Scotch tories, did 
he follow the popular current ? So far from it, that 

• The author is in possession of an original letter from 
one of these statesmen, in which Mr. Henry is expressly 
and directly accused of having precipitated the revolution, 
against the judgment of the older and cooler patriots. 
" Events, however," as v»'e have seen, " favored the bolder 
measures of Mr. Henry," and proved his policy to be the 
best. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 427 

te Stemmed the current, and turned back its course, 
by the power of his resistance. 

5 So in the case of the federal constitution 
whi'ther did the current of the American people tend ? 
Most certainly to its adoption; yet Mr. Henry o 
nse his own language, " with manly firmness and m 
Tpite of an erring world," with the revered Washmg- 
ton too at their head, opposed its adoption with all 
the powers of his eloquence. _ 

The truth seems to be, that this charge is only a 
variation of that conveyed by the opprobrious epi- 
thets of demagogue and factious t^t^-^'^^J^J ,^^ 
have seen that his rivals long since sought to fasten 
;;on him; and there can be little doubt that it pro- 
ceeded from the writhings and contortions of the 
same agonized envy. That a poor young man is- j 
uing from his native woods, unknown, unfriended, 
and comparatively unlettered, should have been able 
by the mere force of unassisted nature, to break to 
ieces the strong political confederacy which then 
Tied the country," to annihilate all the arts and 
finesse of parliamentary intrigue; to edipse, ^J h ^ 
sagacitv, the experience of age; and by the sole 
strength of his native genius, to thr<nv into the shade 
all the hard-earned attainments of literature and 
science, was entirely too humiliating to be borne m 
silence. It was necessary, therefore, to resort to some 
solution of this phenomenon which should at once 
reduce the honors of this plebeian upstart, and soothe 
the wounded feelings of those whose pride he had 
brought down. Hence it became fashionable, m the 
higher circles, to speak of Mr. Henry as a designing 



42S LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

demagogue, a factious tribune, who carried his points, 
not by fair and open debate, but by violent and in- 
flammatory appeals to the worst passions of the mul- 
titude ; and who frequently gave himself the air of 
leading the people, when in truth, he was merely fol- 
lowing their own blind lead. This cant has had its 
day. Truth has set the subject to rights. Mr. Henry 
is alleged, by those who had the best opportunities of 
knowing him, to have been not inferior, either in 
public or in private virtue, to any patriot of the revo- 
lution : and he was confessedly superior to them all in 
that combination of bold, hardy, adventurous, splen- 
did, and solid qualifications, which are so peculiarly 
fitted to revolutionary times. 

" He left,''' says Judge Winston, " no manu- 
scripts." This was to have been expected. We have 
seen that he could not bear the labor of writing ; nor, 
indeed, of that long-continued, coherent, and method- 
ical thinking, without which no successful composi- 
tion, of any extent, can be produced. He thought, in- 
deed, a great deal ; but his thinking was too desultory 
and irregular to take the form of composition. His 
mind had never been disciplined to wait upon his 
pen. It still moved on, and its prismatic beauties 
were as evanescent as they were beautifuL His im- 
agination ^' bodied forth the forms of things " much 
more rapidly, than his unpractised pen could ^^ turn 
them to shapes ; " and it is not improbable, tliat his 
own observation of the difference between the vigor 
with which he thought, and the comparative decrep- 
itude with which he wrote, disgusted him with his 
first attempts, and prevented their repetition. 

Yet this habit which he had of thinking for him- 



v/ 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 429 

self, and looking directly at every subject, with the 
natural eyes of his understanding, without using 
what has been called the spectacles of hoohs, was per- 
haps of advantage to him, both as a statesman and an 
orator: as a statesman, it possibly exempted him 
from that common error of scientific theorists, of 
forcing resemblances between the present and some 
past historical era, and accommodating their measures 
to this imaginary identity ; by his mode of consider- 
ing subjects, no circumstance was either sunk, or 
magnified, or distorted, in order to bend the case to 
a fanciful hypothesis; nor, in deciding what was 
proper to be done in America, did he look to seeij 
what had been found expedient at Athens or[ 
Rome. On the contrary, knowing well the people 
with whom he had to deal, of what they were capable, 
and what was necessary to their happiness, how much 
they could bear, and how much achieve, and looking 
immediately at the subject with that piercing vision, 
that solid judgment and ready resource, which char- 
acterized his mind — he seemed to seize, in every 
case, rather " luckily than laboriously," the course 
which of all others was surest of success. In short, 
this habit made him an original, sound, and practical 
statesman, instead of being a learned, dreaming, and 
visionary theorist. ]N'ot that Mr. Henry was defi- 
cient in historical knowledge ; he had enough of it 
for all the useful purposes either of analogy or illus- 
tration ; but he never permitted it to intercept his 
proper view of the subject, or to take the lead in 
suggesting what was fit to be done. This he chose 
rather to derive from the nature of the case itself, and 



430 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

the character of the peoplB among whom that case 
occurred. 

This habit of relying more on his own meditations 
than on books, was also, perhaps, of service to him 
as an orator : for by this course, he avoided the beaten 
paths and roads of thought ; and instead of exhibiting 
in his speeches old ideas newly vamped up, and an- 
cient beauties tricked off in modern tinsel, his argu- 
ments, sentiments, and figures, had all that freshness 
and novelty which are so universally captivating. 

In what did his peculiar excellence as an orator 
consist ? In what consisted that unrivalled power of 
speaking, which all who ever heard him admit him 
to have possessed ? The reader is already apprized, 
that the author of these sketches never had the advan- 
tage of hearing Mr. Henry, and that no entire speech 
of his was ever extant, either in print or writing: 
hence, there are no materials for minute and exact 
analysis. The inquiry, however, is natural, and has 
been directed, without success, to many of the most 
discriminating of Mr. Henry's admirers. Their an- 
swers are as various as the complexion of their own 
characters, each preferring that property from which 
he had himself derived the most enjoyment. Some 
ascribe his excellence wholly to his manner: others, 
in great part, to the originality and soundness of his 
matter. And among the admirers, in both classes, 
there are not two who concur in assigning the pre- 
eminence to the same quality. Of his matter, one 
will admire the plainness and strength of his reason- 
ing; another, the concentrated spirit of his aphor- 
isms; a third, his Avit; a fourth, his pathos; a fifth, 
the intrinsic beauty of his imagination. So in regard 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 43X 

to his manner, one will place his excellence in his 
articulation and emphasis; a second, in the magic 
power with which he infused the tones of his voice 
into the nerves of his hearers, and riveted their at- 
tention. The truth, therefore, probably is, that it 
was not in any single charm, either of matter or man- 
ner, that we are to look for the secret of his power; 
but that, like Pope^s definition of beauty, it was " the 
joint force and full result of all.'' 

If, however, we are to consider as really and en- 
tirely his, those speeches which have been already 
given in his name to the public, or are now prepared 
for them, there can be no difficulty in deciding, that 
his power must have consisted principally in his de- 
livery. We know what extraordinary effects have 
been produced by the mere manner of an orator, with- 
out any uncommon weight or worth of matter.* We 
have the authority, however, of those who heard the 
identical speeches now professed to be given as his, 
for declaring that they are an extremely imperfect 
representation of them; and their ability to correct 
them so frequently from memory, establishes the fact, 
that it was not the charm of delivery merely, which 
constituted the difference between the report and the 

* " Friar NamI, a capuchin, was so remarkable for his 
eloquence, that his hearers, after a sermon, cried out mercy 
in the streets, as he passed home: and thirty bishops, start- 
ing up under a discourse, hurried home to their respec- 
tive dioceses: yet, when his sermons came to be published, 
they were thought to be unworthy of his reputation, which 
shows how much depends on action; and how correct the 
saying of Demosthenes was on that subject."— B a yle. Ar- 
ticle Narni. 



432 LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

original. This is not the only instance in which a 
great orator has been injured, by imperfect attempts 
to represent him : for we are told that even the great 
Pericles himself met with a similar fate.* Candor 
and justice, however, require us to repeat, that Mr. 
Robertson's reports are unquestionable, in point of 
good faith ; and that they are highly valuable, on ac- 
count of the accuracy and fidelity with which they 
are believed to have preserved the substance of the de- 
bates. It is with extreme regret that the author has 
made a single comment to their disadvantage; but 
justice to Mr. Henry has made it indispensable. 

The basis of Mr. Henry's intellectual character 
was strong natural sense. His knowledge of human 
nature was consummate. His wisdom was that of 
observation, rather than of reading. His fancy, al- 
though sufiiciently pregnant to furnish supplies for 
the occasion, was not so exuberant as to oppress him 
with its productions. He was never guilty of the 
fault, with which Corinna is said to have reproached 
her rival Pindar, of pouring his vase of flowers all at 
once upon the ground ; on the contrary, their beauty 
and their excellence were fully observed, from their 
rarity, and the happiness with which they were dis- 
tributed through his speeches. His feelings were 
strong, yet completely under his command ; they rose 

* " Some harangues of Pericles were still extant in Quin- 
tilian's time; but that learned rhetorician, finding them 
disproportioned to the high reputation of this great man, 
approved the opinion of those who looked upon them as a 
Bupposititious work. An indifferent harangue, however, 
being recited by an excellent orator, may charm the 
hearers. Action is almost all" — Bayle. Article Pericles. 



LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 433 

up to the occasion, but were never suffered to over- 
flow it; his language was often careless, sometimes 
' incorrect; jet upon the whole it was pure and per- 
spicuous, giving out his thoughts in full and clear 
proportion; free from affectation, and frequently 
beautiful; strong without effort, and adapted to the 
occasion; nervous in argument, burning in passion, 
and capable of matching the loftiest flights of his 
genius. 

Mr. Henry, however indolent in his general life, 
was never so in debate, where the occasion called 
for exertion. He rose against the pressure, with the 
most unconquerable perseverance. He held his sub- 
ject up in every light in which it could be placed; 
yet always with so much power, and so much beauty' 
as never to weary his audience, but on the contrary to 
delight th^m. He appealed to every motive of in- 
terest, urged every argument that could convince, 
pressed every theme of persuasion, awakened every 
feeling, and roused every passion to his aid. He had 
abundant variety, too, in his manner; sometimes he 
was very little above the tone of conversation; at 
others, m the highest strain of epic sublimity. His 
course was continuous, his flights well sustained, and 
highly diversified, both in their direction and ve- 
locity. He rose like the thunder-bearer of Jove, when 
he mounts on strong and untiring wing, to sport in 
fearless majesty over the troubled deep— now sweep- 
mg in immense and rapid circles, then suddenly ar- 
resting his grand career, and hovering aloft in trem- 
ulous and terrible suspense; at one instant, plunged 
amid the foaming waves, at the next, reascending on 

28 



434: LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 

high, to play undaimted^among the lightnings of 
heaven, or soar toward the sun. 

He differed, too, from those orators of Great Brit- 
ain, with whom we have become acquainted bv their 
printed speeches. He had not the close method, and 
high polish of those of England ; nor the exuberant 
imagery which distinguishes those of Ireland. On 
the contrary, he was loose, irregular, desultory ; some- 
times rough and abrupt, careless in connecting the 
parts of his discourse, but grasping whatever he 
touched with gigantic strength. In short, he was the 
Orator of ^NTature; and such a one as !N"ature 
might not blush to avow. 

If the reader shall still demand how he acquired 
those wonderful powers of speaking which have been 
assigned to him, we can only answer, with Gray, that 
they were the gift of Heaven — the birthright of 
genius. 

" Thine too, these keys, immortal boy! 
This can unlock the gates of joy; 
Of horror, that, and thrilling fears, 
Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears." 

Of Mr. Henry, John Randolph, of Eoanoke, with 
/ inimitable felicity said that " he was Shakespeare 
^ and Garrick combined ! " In a word, he was one 
of those perfect prodigies of x^ature, of whom very 
few have been produced since the foundations of the 
earth were laid ; and of him may it be said, as truly 
as of any one that ever existed : — 

"He was a man, take him all in all, 
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.''* 

THE END. 

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Mysterious Island. Jules Verne. 
Natural Law in the Spiritual 

World. Henry Drummond. 
Nellie's Memories. Rosa N. Carey. 
Newcomes. By W. M. Thackeray. 
Nicholas Nickleby. Chas. Dickens. 
Ninety-Three. By Victor Hugo. 
Not Like Other Girls. By Rosa 

B* Care/. 



No Name. By Wllkle ColUna. 
Odyssey. Pope's Translation. 
Old Curiosity Shop. By Charles 

Dickens. 
Old Mam'selle's Secret. By B. 

Marlitt. 
Old Mortality. Sir Walter Scott- 
Old Myddleton's Money. By Mary 

Cecil Hay. 
Oliver Twist. Charles Dlckent. 
Only a Word. By George Sbera. 
Only the Governess. By Rosa N. 

Carey. 
On the Heights. B. Auerbach. 
Origin of Species. Chas. Darwin. 
Other Worlds than Ours. Richard 

Proctor. 
Our Bessie. By Rosa N. Carey. 
Our Mutual Friend. By CharleC 

Dickens. 
Pair of Blue Byes. Thos. Hardy. 
Past and Present. Thos. Carlyle, 
Pathfinder. James F. Cooper. 
Pendennis. W. M. Thackeray. 
Pere Gorlot. H. de Balzac. 
Peveril of the Peak. By Sir Wal- 
ter Scott. 
Phantom Rickshaw, The. Bad* 

yard Kipling. 
Phra, The Phoenician. By Bdwlo 

L. Arnold, 
Plcciola. By X. B. Salntlne. 
Pickwick Papers. Chas. Dickeni. 
Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyao. 
Pillar of Fire. By Rev. J. H. 

Ingraham. 
Pilot, The. By James F. Cooper. 
Pioneers. By James F. Cooper. 
Pirate. By Sir Walter Scott. 
Plain Tales from the Hills. By 

Rudyard Kipling. 
Poe's Poems. By Edgar A. Poe. 
Pope's Poems. Alexander Pope. 
Prairie. By James F. Cooper. 
Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austell. 
Prince of the House of David. 

By Rev. J. H. Ingraham. 
Princess of the Moor. B. Marlitt. 
Princess of Thule. Wm. Black. 
Procter's Poems. By Adelaide 

Procter. 
Professor. Charlotte BrontS. 
Prue and I. By Geo. Wm. Curtis. 
Queen Hortense. Louisa Mabl- 

bach. 
Queenle's Whim. Rosa N. Carey. 
Queen's Necklace. Alex. Dumas. 
Quentin Durward. Walter Scott. 
Redgauntlet. Sir Walter Scott. 
Red Rover. By James F. Cooper. 
Reign of Law. Duke of Argyle. 
Reveries of a Bachelor. By Ik 

Marvel. 
Reynard the Fox. Joseph Jacobs. 
Rhoda Fleming. By George Mer- 
edith. 
Rlenzi. By Bulwer-Lytton. 
Robert Ord's Atonement. By BoSft 

N, Carey. 
Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe. 
Rob Boy. By Sir Walter Scott. 
Romance of Two Worlds. Marto 

Corelll. 
Romola. By George Eliot. 
Bory O'More. By Samuel LOTW* 



BtJRT'S fiOMB JLIBBABY— Contlnned. 

Bossettl's Poems. Gabriel Dante 

Rossettl. 
Royal Edinburgh. Mrs. Ollphant. 
Saint Michael. By E. Werner. 
Schonberg-Cotta Family. By Mrs. 

Andrew Charles. 
Sartor Resartua. Thos. Carlyle. 

The. Nathaniel 



I 



Price $1.00 per Copy. 

War. By Frederick 



Essays. Trans- 
B. Saunders, 

By Jane Porter. 
Walter Scott. 

By 



Scarlet Letter, 

Hawthorne. 
Schopenhauer's 

fated by T. 
Scottish Chiefs. 
Scott's Poems. 
Search for Basil Lyndhurst. 

Rosa N. Carey. 
Second Wife. By E. Marlitt. 
Seekers after God. F. W. Farrar. 
Self-Help. By Samuel Smiles. 
Sense and Sensibility. By Jane 

Austen. 
Sesame and Lilies. John Ruskin. 
Seven Lamps of Architecture. By 

John Ruskin. 
Shadow of a Crime. Hall Caine. 
Shelley's Poems. 
Shirley. By Charlotte Bronte. 
Sign of the Four, The. By A. 

Conan Doyle. 
Silas Marner. By George Eliot. 
Silence of Dean Maitland. By 

Maxwell Grey. 
Sin of Joost Avelingh. Maarten 

Maarteus. 
Sir Gibbie. George Macdonald. 
Sketch Book. Washington Irving. 
Social Departure, A. By Sarah 

Jeannette Duncan. 
Soldiers Three. Rudyard Kipling. 
Son of Hagar. By Hall Caine. 
Springhaven. R. D. Blackmore. 
Spy, The. By James F. Cooper. 
Story of an African Farm. By 

Olive Schreiuer. 
Story of John Q. Paton, By Rev. 

Jas. Paton. 
Strathmore. By "Oulda." 
St. Ronan's Well. Walter Scott. 
Study in Scarlet, A. By A. Conan 

Doyle. 
Surgeon's Daughter. By Sir Wal- 
ter Scott. 
Swinburne's Poems. 
Swiss Family Robinson. By Jean 

Rudolph Wyss. 
Taking the Bastile. Alex. Dumab. 
Tale of Two Cities. By Charles 

Dickens. 
iTales from Shakespeare. Charles 

and Mary Lamb. 
Tales of a Traveller. By Wash- 
ington Irvine. 
Talisman. Sir Walter Scott. 
Tanglewood Tales. By Nathaniel 

Hawthorne. 
Tempest and Sunshine. By Mary 

J. Holmes. 
Ten Nights in a Bar Room. By 

T. S. Arthur. 
Tennyson's Po'^ms. 
Ten Years Later. Alex. Dumas. 
Terrible Temptation. By Charles 

Reade. 
Thaddeus of Warsaw. By Jane 

Porter. 
Tbelma. By Marie OorellL 



Thirty Years' 

Schiller. 
Thousand Miles Up the Nile. By 

Amelia B. Edwards. 
Three Guardsmen. Alex. Dumas. 
Three Men in a Boat. By J. K. 

Jerome. 
Thrift. By Samuel Smiles. 
Toilers of the Sea. Victor Hugo. 
Tom Brown at Oxford. By Thos. 

Hughes. 
Tom Brown's School Days. By 

Thomas Hughes. 
Tom Burke of "Ours." By Chas. 

Lever. 
Tour of the World in Eighty' 

Days. By Jules Verne. 
Treasure Island. By R, Louis 

Stevenson. 
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under 

the Sea. By Jules Verne. 
Twenty Years After. By Alex- 
andre Dumas. 
Twice Told Tales. By Nathaniel 

Hawthorne. 
Two Admirals. J. F. Cooper. 
Two Years Before the Mast. By 

R. H. Dana, Jr. 
Uarda. By George Ebers. 
Uncle Max. By Rosa N. Carey. 
Uncle Tom's Cabin. By Harriet 

Beecher Stowe. 
Under Two Flags. "Ouida." 
Undine. De La Motte Fouque. 
Unity of Nature. By Duke of 

Argyle. 
Vanity Fair. W. M. Thackeray. 
Vendetta. By Marie Corelli. 
Vicar of Wakefield. By Oliver 

Goldsmith. 
Vicomte de Bragelonne. Alexan- 
dre Dumas. 
Villette. By Charlotte Brontg. 
Virginians. W. M. Thackeray. 
Water Babies. Charles Kingsley. 
Water Witch. James F. Cooper. 
Waverley. By Sir Walter Scott. 
Wee Wifie. By Rosa N. Carey. 
Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley. 
We Two. By Edna Lyall. 
What's Mine's Mine. By George 

Macdonald. 
When a Man's Single. By J. M<. 

Barrle. 
White Company. By A. Doyle. 
Whittier's Poems. 
Wide, Wide World. By Susao 

Warner. 
Window in Thrums. J. M. Barrle« 
Wing and Wing. J. F. Cooper. 
Woman in White. Wilkie CoUIns*. 
Won by Waiting. Edna Lyall. 
Wonder Book, A. For Boys and 

Girls. By N. Hawthorne. 
Woodstock^. By Sir Walter Scott. 
Wooed and Married. By Rosa N, 

Carey. 
Wooing O't. By Mrs. Alexander. 
Wordsworth's Poems. 
World Went Very Well then. By 

Walter Besaot. 
Wormwood. By Marie Corelli. 
Wreck of the Grosvenor. By W* 

Clark Russell. 
Zenobia. By William Ware. 



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